Tea; its effects, medicinal and moral

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

PRESENTED BY

PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND

MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID

TEA;

ITS EFFECTS, MEDICINAL

AND MORAL.

London :

Printed by A. Spottiswoode,

New-Strcet-Sqiiarc.

TEA;

ITS EFFECTS, MEDICINAL
AND MORAL.

BY

G. G. SIGMOND, M.D. F.S.A. F.L.S.

PROFESSOR OF MATERIA MEDICA TO THE ROYAL
MEDICO-BOTANICAL SOCIETY.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR

LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1839.

D.W^.

TO

JAMES HUGHES ANDERDON, Es^.

&c. &c.

My dear Anderdon,

To you I dedicate this little
Volume, as a slight testimonial of the
high estimation in which I hold you.
Many years of intimate acquaintance have
taught me to admire you for your love
of all that is beautiful in art and excellent
in science, and to respect you for the pos-
session of those intellectual qualifications

•

VI DEDICATION.

which give to this existence its richest
chiirm, and promise happiness in the life
to come.

Ever faithfully yours,

G. G. SIGMOND, M.D.

24. Dover Street,
June 26. 1839.

PREFACE

It has long been the custom of the Royal
Medico- Botanical Society to invite one of its
Professors to deliver an Introductory Address
at the opening of each session. The task, this
year, devolved upon me. The recent discovery
in British India of the Tea Plant, which reflects
so much credit upon botanic science, appeared
to me deserving the deepest attention ; the more
so, because it had seemed to escape the notice
of scientific men in England, whilst the Conti-
nental botanists — amongst them Auguste De
Candolle, " the distinguished son of a distin-
guished father" — had considered it a subject of
the highest importance.

The paper I read met with the kindest re-
ception ; and a note was recorded upon the
minutes, which called upon me to make public

VIll PREFACE.

the information I liad collected. I found, that
were I to print my observations in the form in
which they were delivered, they would not be
acceptable to the public generally, for they were
couched in the language usually employed in
science, and they abounded in technical terms.
I therefore resolved to give, in a popular form,
that which would most probably be required by
the ireneral reader, — to condense it in a small
volume, and to reserve for the Transactions
of the Society those details which bear more
immediately a scientific character.

TEA;

ITS

MEDICINAL AND MORAL EFFECTS.

Man is so surrounded by objects calculated to
arrest his attention, and to excite either his admi-
ration or his curiosity, that he often overlooks the
humble friend that ministers to his habitual com-
fort; and the familiarity he holds with it almost
renders him incapable of appreciating its value.
Amongst the endless variety of the vegetable pro-
ductions which the bounteous hand of Nature has
given to his use is that simple shrub, whose
leaf supplies an agreeable beverage for his daily
nourishment or for his solace ; but little does he
estimate its real importance: he scarcely knows how
materially it influences his moral, his physical, and
his social condition : — individually and nationally
we are deeply indebted to the tea-plant. There may
be many vegetables, such as wheat, or barley, the
potato, or the vine, from whicli more immediate
sustenance may be derived, or they may, during
their cultivation, give employment to large masses
of people, but do they call into action the energies
of nations, or do they give rise to the exertion of

B

2 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL

SO much intellectual power? Every circumstance
connected with the growth, the cultivation, the
preparation, and the exportation from its native
soil, of the tea-leaf must awaken the most lively
curiosity. The commerce which it creates is of
the most exclusive character : it is the source of
occupation of the people of two distant nations,
strikingly distinguished from each other by their
customs, their prejudices, their laws, and their re-
ligion. It stimulates the one to agricultural in-
dustry, the other to navigation and to manufactures.
It compels them to an intercourse which, from the
dissimilarity of their tastes, their feelings, and their
opinions, they would not otherwise have tolerated.
If, too, it is the cause of the distribution of riches
amongst individuals, it likewise affords, by the
taxes that are raised from it, large revenues to the
respective governments, and enables them either to
support the burden of expensive wars, or to maintain
their dignity abroad and their tranquillity at home.

A curious, and not an uninstructive, work might
be written upon the singular benefits which have
accrued to this country from the preference we
have given to the beverage obtained from the tea-
plant, above all those that might be derived from
the rich treasures of the vegetable kingdom. It
would prove that our national importance has been
ntimately connected with it, and that much of our
present greatness, and even the happiness of our
social system, springs from this unsuspected source.
It would show us that our mighty empire in the
East, that our maritime superiority, and that our

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 3

progressive advancement in the arts and the
sciences have materially depended upon it. Great,
indeed, are the blessings which have been diffused
amongst immense masses of mankind by the cul-
tivation of a shrub, whose delicate leaf, passing
through a variety of hands, forms an incentive to
industry, contributes to health, to national riches,
and to domestic happiness. The social tea-table is
like the fireside of our country, a national delight ;
and, if it be the scene of domestic converse and of
agreeable relaxation, it should likewise bid us re-
member that every thing connected with the growth
and preparation of this favourite herb should awaken
a higher feeling — that of admiration, love, and grati-
tude to Him "who saw every thing that he had made,
and behold it was very good."

At the present moment every circumstance
which relates to the tea-plant carries with it a
deeper interest. A discovery has been made of no
less importance than that the hand of Nature
has planted the shrub within the bounds of the
wide dominion of Great Britain : a discovery which
must materially influence the destinies of nations ; it
must change the employment of a vast number of
individuals ; it must divert the tide of commerce, and
awaken to agricultural industry the dormant ener-
gies of a mighty country, whose wellbeing must be
the great aim of a paternal government. In a
scientific as well as in a commercial point of view,
the value of the inquiries that must follow upon
this important discovery can scarcely be yet esti-
mated. A close investigation, and a diligent research

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4 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

must elicit many facts relating to the produce of
considerable regions of the East, in which, doubt-
less, exist abundant materials, both known and
unknown, for the uses of man : they may diffuse
still greater blessings over the human race than
those that are now enjoyed. The resources of a
magnificent empire are yet to be developed. India
has, within her bosom, the richest vegetable and
mineral treasures, which are to be given to the rest
of the world, to unite together in closer bonds of
harmony two great nations, the one capable, by the
energies of her people, of governing; the other, by
her climate, evidently destined to be the not un-
willing vassal of foreigners ; for such has been her
lot from the earliest records of mankind'; and to
possess her wealthy domain has been, and will be,
the ambition of the conquerors of the world.

Another great inducement to examine this inter-
esting subject arises out of the prevailing dispo-
sition which now exists to substitute the infusion
of the tea-leaf for the fermented and distilled
liquors which have been, from the earliest records
we possess, both sacred and profane, the accustomed
drink of all the nations of the earth. It is a most
remarkable event in the annals of man, that there
should be a systematic organisation of large bodies
under the name of Temperance Societies, having
the strength of moral union, and guided by the
opinions of many reflecting persons, who have
pledged tliemselves to abandon all fermented
liquids, and to confine themselves to tea. By such
an organisation alone can these principles be car-

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 5

Tied into action ; for the custom of a country bears
with it such a despotic sway that it is almost next
to an impossibility to eradicate it, even when bor-
dering upon the absurd or mischievous. Public
opinion only can act upon it ; and the proselytes
daily made seem to prove that this mighty engine
is now most actively at work. That dram- drinking
is the pernicious source of poverty and sorrow
there can be no doubt ; but the question may be
fairly asked, and duly considered, whether the glass
of generous wine, or strengthening beer, is to be
totally abandoned, without an examination of the
circumstances which may render a moderate enjoy-
ment either prudent or necessary ? iMust man rush
from one extreme to the other? Do not temperature,
climate, age, demand some investigation before the
denunciation of all fermented liquors be counte-
nanced ; and will not even the lover of tea acknow-
ledge his susceptibility of the pleasure and of the
utility of his favourite beverage to be heightened
by a moderate indulgence in Nature's other gifts ?
Does not our knowledge of the condition of the in-
habitants of other countries teach us, that the same
fluid, which only causes a slight acceleration of the
circulation of the blood of the Scotchman or of the
Swede, would drive an Italian or a Spaniard mad ?
A German, says Montesquieu, drinks through
custom, founded upon constitutional necessity ; a
Spaniard drinks from choice, or out of the mere
wantonness of luxury. An amiable enthusiast, the
excellent Archdeacon of Bombay, has written a
quaint little volume, entitled, " Charges against

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6 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL

custom and public opinion, for the following high
crimes and misdemeanors : — for having stolen away
the senses of mankind, and on sundry occasions
driven the world mad ; for their outrageous appetite
in having eaten up the understanding and the con-
science ; and for having feloniously turned the heart
to stone." He exclaims, " Bacchus, astride of the
spirit cask, is the very evil genius of desolation and
wretchedness, poverty, disease, and crime ; and to
have anything to do with his horrid cask, to buy
any of it, or to sell any of it, or in any way to lend
the respectability of our name in the consumption
of it, is downright insanity."

The moralist and the philosopher may be led to
acquiesce in the leading doctrines which these so-
cieties have laid down, and they may hail with
satisfaction the dawn of a new and excellent prin-
cijile, which may serve to counterbalance the fear-
ful calamities inflicted upon the community by
the debasing influence of habitual intoxication.
They may naturally applaud the labours of those
■who are inculcating opinions which promise to
substitute domestic tranquillity for the fierce brawl-
ings of the alehouse ; the sober and steady habits
which lead to virtue for the reckless dissipation
which terminates in vice, in infamy, and in disease.
It is, however, for the physician to give the ener-
gies of his mind to examine whether the health of
the community will suffer by the sudden change
of long-established habits, whether the projiosed
reform carry with it no injurious effects upon the
constitution of the inhabitants of the country.

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 7

Having weighed well all the arguments which the
advocates of the new system urge, and comparing
them with facts already established, it is his duty to
place his own opinion before the public, who, guided
by that greatest blessing of intellect, common
sense, will either be led by him, or will follow the
dictates of their own judgment. With such excite-
ments to examine into the nature and artificial pre-
parations of Tea, it will not be considered an
intrusion upon the time and the occupation of the
intellectual part of the community, if there be placed
before them a brief detail of the most important
facts that have been from time to time made known ;
and if there be taken a condensed view of all the
bearings of a subject which, if judiciously inquired
into, may fairly blend amusement, instruction, and
utility. M

Alike, the historical, tlie botanical, and the medi-
cal questions that are involved demand a knowledge
of these varied branches of science ; but it is not
necessary that minutiae should be entered into in a
volume which is destined for popular inquirers ;
more particularly as these have been discussed be-
fore by the learned in other shapes, and have been
fairly examined ; that, however, which is necessary
to be known may be given in the simplest language
and unencumbered by technical terms.

For a number of centuries the character, the
manners, the customs, and the institutions of the
Chinese, from whom alone could be gathered any
information upon the subject of the tea-plant, were
veiled in the deepest obscurity. They were rather

B 4

8 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

matters of curious speculation than of certain know-
ledge. This people had managed to conceal their
actual state of civilisation, and had shrouded in a
mystery almost imjoenetrable their progress in the
arts and sciences. The little that had been gleaned
led to the conclusion, which is now proved to be
correct, that they had arrived at a certain state of
civilisation before other nations had emerged from
barbarism, but beyond that they were fearful of
advancing ; and that they held that all innovations
were to be dreaded. Those who have witnessed the
ruin and decay of the mightiest empires, who have
seen the revolutions, so fatal to the happiness of
society, that have followed upon the introduction
of the wealth arising out of the productions of art ;
who have seen luxury and dissipation amongst the
wealthy, poverty and misery amongst the poor,
consequent upon the accumulation of riches by the
few, have applauded this dread of novelty, and
pointed to the stability of the Chinese empire, amongst
the wreck of nations, as a proof of the necessity
of avoiding a constant love of advancement. The
government assiduously instilled into the minds of
their subjects this doctrine, and likewise inculcated
an hostility to any communication with strangers,
from whom they imagined more was to be dreaded
than gained. The proliibition to intercourse with
other nations was, however, gradually relaxed, but
only in favour of the purchasers of an article of
commerce, which excited industry amongst the
people, which had become a necessary of life to
foreigners, and tlierefore was to be viewed with

AND MOKAL EFFECTS. 9

some share of indulgence. From these circum-
stances, the difficulty of arriving at any decisive
knowledge of the nature of the tea-plant pre-
cluded the inquiries which scientific persons were
anxious to make. A slight information only could
be gleaned, either from a few missionaries, whose
minds were directed to higher thoughts, or from a
few individuals attached to diplomatic missions,
who, however capable or anxious of arriving at in-
formation, were too much harassed by constant dis-
cussions and personal fatigue to gather the facts
required. The merchants were too much engaged
in commercial speculations, and had neither time
nor, probably, the inclination to devote their atten-
tion to points which did not immediately promote
their own views. The government of this country
could render no assistance : they were compelled
to make great sacrifices to the prejudices and to
the laws of the Chinese, in order that they might
maintain an equivocal intercourse which was held
by so uncertain a tenure. The scanty materials,
however, that were furnished were collected by
some of the most learned men. Amongst these,
Cornelius Bontekoe, Linnaeus, and Dr. Lettsom
must be enumerated as the most distinguished.

So many of the obstacles which stood in the way
of acquiring some knowledge of the people of
China having been removed, we cannot fail to be
struck with the singular features that have been
presented to our view. We find them to be indus-
trious, polite in their manners, courteous to each
other ; and that their whole system of public as well

10 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

as private life is dependent upon one great tie of
nature — that which binds the son to the parent :
alike their morality and their religion are based
upon this principle. To support the aged father is
the great incentive to the acquisition of wealth,
and to the cultivation of their intellectual and
physical powers. Their country is the most fertile
of all the Asiatic regions : its geography and its
productions are now sufficiently familiar to us ; and
■Nve can appreciate the industry which has converted
such varied soils into sources of riches.

The Chinese have followed, it would appear,
from the earliest annals of the empire, agriculture,
with zeal, with assiduity, ingenuity, and unwearied
attention. They are admirably adapted to carry
this branch of industry to perfection, for they are
remarkable for their strength, and for their capa-
bility of encountering fatigue. They are charac-
terised by a superiority over all the nations by
whom they are surrounded, no less as to their mental
than to their physical powers. Europeans living
amongst Asiatic nations have been particularly
struck with this fact. Amongst the valuable mass of
evidence delivered before a committee of the House
of Commons, in the year 1830, relating to the tea-
trade, and other articles of our Indian commerce,
Mr. Crawfurd, a gentleman who enjoyed consider-
able opportunities of ascertaining the truth, from
his residence for several years in the Bengal Presi-
dency, in Calcutta, in Penang, in Java, in Siam,
in Cochin China, and in the Burmese territory,
stated, that a Chinese is at least two inches taller

AND MORAL EFFECTS. ll

than a Siamese, and by three inches taller than a
Cochin Chinese, a Malay, or a Javanese, and that
his frame is proportionally stronger and well'built.
His superiority in personal skill, in dexterity,
and ingenuity, are still more striking. They have
brouo-ht the art of cultivation of their land to
the highest state of perfection ; they have taken
every advantage of soil and of climate ; and have,
by their perseverance, rendered the immense portion
of the globe which they inhabit highly productive,
and necessarily important 'to other nations. Dr.
Abel, who accompanied the first embassy, has given
us a general idea of the appearance of the provinces
through which he passed. He has told us that
they abounded in proofs of the most determined
perseverance and labour. On every side he saw,
cultivated with the greatest care, the plants which
are most necessary for the uses of man, such as
wheat, rice, barley, beans, peas, potatoes, and the
white turnip ; he likewise observed that the cotton,
the sugar-cane, the mulberry, were objects of in-
cessant attention ; he was struck with the growth
of the camellia oleifera (the oil-bearing tea-plant),
the croton sebiferum (the tallow-tree), the laurus
camphora (the camphor laurel), and many other of
those plants Avhich yield to domestic economy or
to medicine products of inestimable value. It has
been observed, by a high authority, that " a China-
man keeps his field in better order than his house."
His implements are formed with ingenuity, and are
admirably adapted to fulfil the purposes for which
they were invented : he wields them with a due

12 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL

knowledge of their power, and of the skill ne-
cessary to render them subservient to the muscu-
lar strength of man. With the plough, with the
harrow, the brake, the hoe, and the roller, he is
familiar : they are not of that rude construction
which belongs to the infancy of agriculture, at the
same time they are of the simplest structure, and
formed of the most durable materials. He excels
almost all nations in the process of manuring land ;
his mode of irrigation is admirable ; the conveyance
of water by canals and aqueducts perfect. He has
carried his knowledge of machinery to so great
a height that he throws volumes of water to any
part of his farm. He takes especial care that every
acre shall be rendered productive. In the different
provinces, vegetable bodies best suited to them are
cultivated ; for the variety of soil, of climate, and
of atmosphere, has been duly watched, and every
advantage taken of the knowledge that has been
gained through a long series of centuries. To
a people thus acquainted with the principles and
the practice of husbandry, the rearing the tree,
and the bringing it to a state of the utmost per-
fection, would neither be a matter of neglect
nor of difficulty. Attached themselves to the infu-
sion furnished by the leaves, they appear, from a
very early period, to have devoted considerable
attention to the points connected with it. The
origin of its employment as a beverage amongst
them is wrapped in the obscurity which generally
belongs to ancient usages ; and a fabulous tale is nar-
rated, as to its introduction, which has had credence

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 13

even amongst the better informed inhabitants of the
empire ; whilst, as is usual with fables, it has been
imagined to have some allegorical allusion, which,
if explained, would satisfy the lover of antiquarian
lore. The tale is thus related by one of the com-
pilers of a history of China : —

Danna, a very religious prince, and third son
of an Indian king, named Kosjusvo, is said to have
landed in China, in the year 510 of the Christian
era. He employed all his care and thought to
dijBTuse throughout the country a knowledge of God
and religion ; and, being desirous to excite men by
his example, imposed on himself privations and
mortifications of every kind ; living in the open air,
and devoting the days and nights to prayer and
contemplation. After several years, however, being
worn out with fatigue, he fell asleep against his
will ; and that he might faithfully observe his oath,
which he thought he had violated, he cut off his
eyelids, and threw them on the ground. Next day,
having returned to the same spot, he found them
changed into a shrub which the earth had never
before produced. Having eaten some of the leaves
of it, he found his spirits exhilarated, and his former
vigour restored. He recommended this aliment to
his disciples and followers. The reputation of tea
increased, and after that time it continued to be
generally used. Kasmpfer, in his Amoenitates Ex"
oticcB, gives the life with a portrait of this saint,
so celebrated in China and Japan. There is seen
at the feet of Darma a reed, M'hich indicates that
he had traversed the seas and rivers.

14? TEA; ITS MEDICINAL

Certain it is, that European travellers, who, at the
commencement of the revival of knowledge, found
their way into the empire which the inhabitants
called celestial, speak of the Chiai Catai as a uni-
versal favourite ; and the custom of sipping it has
evidently been handed down from generation to
generation, until it has become indispensably neces-
sary to the rich, and a great desideratum to the
poor. At this day the consumption of tea in a
Chinese family must be very great: it would appear
that throughout the whole of the day they take
advantage of an apparatus in which it is kept, and
are constantly sipping it. There exists in the lan-
guage numerous proverbs which tend to show that
the rich enjoy the strongest, whilst the poor must
be contented with that which is weak. Mr. Davis
observed, in the very interesting evidence which
he gave before the House of Commons, that their
figurative expression for poverty is drawn from this
source. It is weak tea, and insipid rice, in allusion
to the want of means to obtain a strong tea, and
wherewithal to flavour their rice. The tea-plant
is evidently indigenous in many of the provinces of
China, and in various situations serves in the fields
as a hedge-shrub ; but there are particular localities
in which neither labour, skill, nor ingenuity are
spared to bring it to the state of the highest per-
fection of which it is capable. It exists, indeed, in
different parts of the Eastern hemisphere, but it is
only in China that it has been extensively culti-
vated ; for, although tlie Javanese assert that they
have within the limits of their empire a shrub which

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 15

is far superior to that which is found in China, we
have no evidence of the fact, nor has any exporta-
tion been made of that of which they have so loudly
boasted. The plant evidently flourishes over the
greater portion of the Chinese empire; and there
must be varieties produced by cultivation, which
are not known in Europe, but which are said to be
in high estimation amongst those people who can
afford to purchase them. That which is best known
to the European, and which, indeed, seems grown
and prepared for the supply of our markets, is the
produce of the central and the maritime provinces
of China, forming the richest and finest portions of
the empire. From these, too, the most valued pro-
ductions, and the more highly esteemed manufac-
tures of various articles of dress and of luxury, are
obtained. The demand for exportation has neces-
sarily increased its cultivation ; and it is now suc-
cessfully reared in many situations where it was
formerly unknown, or entirely neglected. The
provinces of Fokien, of Keang-nan, of Chek-eang,
of Kiang-si, and Kung-soo yield the largest pro-
portion ; and the English resident is led to believe
that from them the best supply is obtained ; but
the provinces immediately around Pekin afford that
which is preferred by the luxurious citizen ; and,
from those which border upon the Tartarian region,
the Russian and the Muscovite draw their supplies,
which are of a kind and of a character which are
much to be prized by the amateur of tea.

It is in Fokien, or in " the happy establishment,"
that a very large proportion of that tea which is the

16 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

ordinary beverage of the tea-drinkers of this country
is grown. The shrub here acquires great luxuriance ;
is diligently watched over ; its farmyards, its drying
establishments, are on a scale of great magnitude ;
and it furnishes us with a sound black tea, of suffi-
cient aroma, strength, and taste to gratify the palate.
This province is described as highly picturesque :
it is separated from the rest of the empire by a
chain of mountains, surrounding it on every side
towards the land, whilst rugged cliffsj which gra-
dually diminish in height, gently undulate towards
the sea. Although the elevations are considerable,
yet admirable localities are furnished for the tea-
plant amongst numerous fertile valleys and lux-
uriant plains, from which it gradually spreads up
almost to the summit of the loftiest range of hills.
In the district of this province, which is called
Keen-nung-foo, are situated some tea-farms, which
have acquired considerable celebrity ; for the pro-
duce of the Woo-e-shan mountains is eagerly pur-
chased. It is, however, attended with considerable
expense ; for, from the absence of beasts of burden,
of wheel carriages, or of tolerable roads, each year's
growth must be transported on the shoulders of
porters over the intervening mountains. Each chest
of tea is carried on a man's back. Although, from
this district, eighteen miles are only to be traversed
to reach Kwang-tun or Canton, yet sometimes the
farms are situated three hundred miles from this
great depository, and, as many mountain passes,
rivers, creeks, and canals, intervene, the transport-
ation may require weeks, nay, months. The general

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 17

vegetation of the province of Fokien is by no means
luxuriant, for the soil is poor ; still the industry of
its inhabitants has led them to the successful cul-
tivation of some of the more highly prized fruits.
The natural growth of the province is not parti-
cularly striking, and even the tea-plant district is
confined to a very limited range ; the farmer gener-
ally asserting that the good black tea grows only
within a circumference of about thirty miles, and
that all which is found beyond it is of an inferior
character. They prefer -the produce of the sides
of the hills ; and, although it is the custom of the
country to plant both hill and vale, the preference
is given to that which is brought from elevations.
Keang-nan, which has been of late divided into two
provinces, is represented as one of the most favoured
spots on the face of the earth. It is asserted that
the natives of this part of China are remarkable for
excelling all their countrymen, not only in agricul-
ture, in manufacture^ but likewise in literature and
accomplishments; and that there is an evident su-
periority in every thing that springs from it. This
important province consists of an immense plain,
interspersed by a few hilly ridges : one of the
noblest rivers of the old world, Yang-tse, flows
through it. It is here that one of the most delicate
and highly prized of the green teas, the Song-lo, is
cultivated and prepared. Che-keang is likewise a
province of much agricultural industry, and a nur-
sery for the tea-plant. Keang-se and Keang-soo
are both remarked for their salubrity, for their
valuable productions ; and amongst the chief em-

c

18 tea; its medicixal

ployments of the people is the rearing and drying
the leaves of the shrub.

It would appear that, notwithstanding all the
labour and skill that may be employed, there are
many situations in which the tea-plant, though
its natural hardihood is great, vegetates produc-
ing flowers and seeds, but does not yield leaves
fit for the uses to which they are generally ap-
plied : hence, great attention is at all times de-
manded, and judgment in the selection of a
spot fully adapted to the development of its higher
qualities. This does not altogether depend upon
temperature or range of climate, for it has been
observed that the winter of China is much more
severe than that which occurs under corresponding
latitudes in Europe. De Guignes has remarked
that the heat or cold is dependent on the di-
rection of the winds. Cold is predominant during
the months of October, November, December, Jan-
uary, February, and March, whilst the wind during
the greater proportion of that time is either north
or north-east. In April and May the prevailing
wind is south-easterly, in June and July south and
south-westerly, and it returns south by east by Au-
gust and September. Dr. Falconer has drawn as a
conclusion^ from a consideration of the different tea
localities, that the tea is produced over an extent of
country where the mean annual temperature ranges
from 73° to 54° 5' of Fahrenheit ; where the heat of
summer does not descend below 80°, and the cold
of winter ranges from 54-° to 56° ; where the differ-
ence between summer and winter heat is on the
northern limit 59°, and on the southern 30° : that

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 19

it is cultivated in the highest perfection where the
mean annual heat ranges from 54'° to 64°. That
rain falls in all the months of the year, and that the
moisture of the climate is on the whole moderate.
These remarks will apply to Japan, in some parts of
which excellent teas are produced. It is universally
admitted that the tea-plant thrives best in an open
exposure to the south.

Dr. Abel has given a very good account of
the soil, and the geological structure of the tea
localities, drawn from his own personal observ-
ations, which are thoroughly borne out by all
that has been made known to us since he ac-
companied Lord Amherst on his embassy. The
shrub succeeds best on the sides of mountains,
where there can be little accumulation of mould,
and in a gravelly soil, formed either from disinte-
grated sandstone or by the debris of the rocks, con-
sisting chiefly of sandstone, schistus, and granite.
Le Comte states that the best tea is produced in a
gravelly soil, the next best in a light or sandy soil,
and the inferior in a yellow soil.

Sir George Staunton thus describes the ap-
pearance of the tea-tree, as it was seen by
Lord Macartney's embassy, for the first and only
time, on its return from Pekin, on the river Chen-
taun-kiang, in the latitude 29° 30' N., '< On the
sides and tops of earthern embankments, di-
viding the garden-grounds and groves of oranges,
the tea-plant was for the first time seen growing like
a common shrub, scattered carelessly about." Mr.
Barrow speaks of the same spot : — " We had thus

c 2

20 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL

far passed through the country without having seen
a single plant of the tea-shrub ; but here we found
it used as a common plant for hedge-rows, to divide
the gardens and fruit groves, but not particularly
<;ultivated for its leaves."

The tea-plant is a beautiful shrub, bearing some
resemblance to the myrtle : it bears a yellow flower,
which is exceedingly fragrant. Its similarity to the
camellia in its general appearance, in the shape of
its leaf, in the formation of its floral developments,
had struck the common observer, and it was re-
marked that the Camellia Oleifcra bore so strong a
resemblance, that even the practised eye had great
difficulty in distinguishing one from the other when
out of flower. A question has been agitated amongst
botanists whether the thea be not a camellia.

Dr. Wallich considers the two genera differ
widely from each other, and that this is marked
by the formation of their respective fruits, in both
of which it is a roundish, more or less triangular,
dry capsule, of three distinct cells, containing one
solitary seed or nut ; and it bursts at the time of its
full maturity vertically, by means of three fissures
extending from the top of its capsule towards the
base; but this bursting, or, as it is botanically termed,
dehiscence, takes place differently in the two cap-
sules. In the tea, it proceeds along the middle of
tlie lobes or angles, thus six valves are formed, each
lobe splitting into two hemispherical valves. In the
camellia, it bursts along the middle of each side,
consequently, alternating with the corners into three
very distinct valves. The general outline of the
capsule of the tea is triangular, divided into three

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 21

globular lobes ; whilst the camellia is very obscurely
triangular, without any tendency to become deeply
three lobed. Mr. Griffith, in his admirable rejDort
of the tea-plant of Upper Assam, has discussed very
ably this opinion of the great botanist, Dr. Wallich,
with whom he does not agree. He expresses his
opinion that, from examination of the Assamese
tea-plant, and of two species of camellia from the
Khasiya hills, that there is no difference between
thea and camellia, and he has given some drawings
which show the perfect identity of the two plants.
He is borne out by the opinion of several Euroj)ean
botanists, whose authority is quoted by Sir William
Hooker, in his account of the tea-plant in the Bo^
tanical Magazine. Under any circumstances the
distinguishing marks must be acknowledged to con-
stitute rather a specific than a generic difference.

Few questions have been more agitated, and less
satisfactorily solved, than whether there be two
species of thea, from the one of which is exclusively
obtained the green tea, and from the other the black,
or whether there be not many varieties, from which,
according to the mode of preparation, either of
the teas may be obtained. To the latter opinion,
after much examination, I am inclined to yield.
The words of Dr. Lettsom were long considered
the authority to which deference was to be paid : —
" There is only one species of this plant ; the differ-
ence of green and Bohea tea depending upon the
nature of the soil, the culture and manner of drying
the leaves. It has even been observed that a green
tea-tree, planted in the Bohea country, will produce

c 3

22 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

Bohea tea, land so the contrary;" and he further
adds, " I have examined several hundred flowers,
both from the Bohea and green tea countries, and
their botanical characters have always appeared
uniform."

This opinion has been supported by many sys-
tematic botanists, although several (at the head of
whom is to be placed Linnaeus) considered that the
teas were produced by two distinct species. Most
of those who have resided in China believe that
there is but one shrub, which is the exclusive source
of all the varieties and shades of the tea of com-
merce. Mr. Pigou states that the Chinese all agree
that there is but one sort or species of the tea-tree,
and that the difference in tea arises from soil and
manner of curing. Mr. Marjoribank observes, that
the tea-plants of all the provinces are supposed to
be of one species, the difference in the manufac-
tured article arising from difference of soil, climate,
and manufacture. Green tea has been made in
the districts from whence the black tea comes, and
vice versa.

Mr. Crawfurd says, — " The tea is known to be bo-
tanically one species ; so is the vine, which furnishes
almost a complete parallel ; and I believe every
distinction between black and green tea to be owing
to climate, soil, and cultivation." Mr. lleeve_, on the
other hand, whose long residence in China, and
whose scientific acquirements obtain for his opinion
the highest respect, stated, before the Committee of
the House of Commons, that his conclusion was
that the green tea was not made from the same

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 23

plant as the Bohea ; but that there were two distinct
varieties, if not two distinct species.

Chowqua, a Chinaman, who had been eight times
in the Bohea country, and who had remained there
from four to six months on each occasion, is often
quoted, as having said that Bohea may be cured as
Hyson, and Hyson as Bohea, and so of all sorts ; but
that experience has shown that teas are cured as
best suit the qualities they have from the soils
where they grow ; so that Bohea will make bad
Hyson, and Hyson, though very dear in the country
where it grows, bad Bohea : however, in the pro-
vince of Fokien, which may be called the Bohea
province, tea has, for some few years, been made
there after the Hyson manner, which has been sold at
Canton as such. After such conflicting opinions, it
must be acknowledged that it can only be by patient
and careful examination of the plant, under all the
circumstances of its cultivation, that we can clear
up the doubts ; and, until some scientific botanist
shall have had opportunities of witnessing on
the spot the modifications produced by culture
and soil, we must consider, adhuc sub judice
lis. The plant is an evergreen, growing to the
heisrht of five or six feet : if left to itself it
would grow to thirty feet ; but this very seldom
occurs. Dr. Lettsom has the following note : —
'' Authors widely differ respecting the size of this
tree. Le Comte says it grows of various sizes, from
two feet to tvvo hundred, and sometimes so thick
that two men can scarcely grasp the trunk in their
arms." The description, however, given by Le

c 4

24- TEA; ITS MEDICINAL

Comte, of what he himself saw in the province of
Fokien, is very different. He thus speaks : — " En-
tering upon the province of Fokien, they first made
me observe tliea upon the declining of a little hill.
It was not above five or six feet high: several stalks,
each of which was an inch thick, joined together
and divided at the top into many small branches,
composed a kind of cluster, somewhat like our myrtle.
The trunk, though seemingly dry, yet bore very green
branches and leaves. These leaves are drawn out in
length at the point, pretty straight, an inch or an
inch and a half long, and indented in their whole
circumference. The oldest seemed somewhat white
without : they were hard, brittle, and bitter. The
new ones, on the contrary, were soft, pliable, red-
dish, smooth, transparent, and pretty sweet to the
taste, especially after they had been a little chewed."
The bark of the tree is of a chesnut colour toward
the top, and below somewhat of the ash colour;
the extremities of the twigs are greenish, the
branches are numerous, irregular, slender, and of
different sizes ; the leaves have their lamina smooth,
very glossy, the upper surface rising in several
places in roundish swellings, hollow underneath,
veined, of a firm texture : they are alternate, ellip-
tical, obtusely serrate, with the edges between the
teeth recurved. Lettsom observes that the apex
is emarginate, and that no author has remarked
this obvious circumstance. Even Kaempfer himself
says, " that the leaves terminate in a sharp point."
They have a footstalk, which is very short, round
on the under side, on the upper side flattish, and

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 25

slightly channelled. They are like those of the
Morella cherry-tree in shape, colour, and size, when
full grown. A very striking difference was percept-
ible in the colour, shape, glossy appearance, and
size of the two plants, designated black and
green, which were placed before the Medico-Bo-
tanical Society by Mr. Loddige. The branches
contain a great number of flowers, which bear
a very strong resemblance to the wild rose. The
number of petals vary much, and by no means
bear out the idea of Linnaeus and of Sir John Hill,
who, in making two distinct species, say that the
Bohea flower has six petals, and the green nine
petals.

The agriculturist, who thoroughly knows

" Quid quaeque ferat regio, et quid queeque recuset,"

takes care to plant his farm for the growth of tea
on the side of a hill, or in a valley suflftciently wide
for the due circulation of the atmospheric air, and
the collection of the rays of light. His attention is
generally repaid by the abundance of his crops. He
carefully selects, too, a locality remarkable for the
fertility of the soil. Both Barrow and Ellis speak
of the luxuriance of vegetation in the neighbour-
hood of the spots in which the farms were seen.
Barrow says, " There was no want of trees, among
which the most common were the tallow-tree and
the camphor, cedar, firs, and the tall and majestic
Arbor Vitce. Groves of oranges, citrons, and lemons,
were abundantly interspersed in the little vales that

26 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

sloped down to the brink of the river." Ellis, in
his account of the ascent to the summit of the
mountains between Ta-long and Ta-ling-shien,
tells US;, " The route led through a valley where we
for the first time saw the tea-plant. It is a beau-
tiful shrub, resembling a myrtle, with a yellow
flower, extremely fragrant. The plantations here
were not of any extent, and were either surrounded
by small fields of other cultivation, or placed in
detached spots. We also saw the ginger in small
patches." About three days after he observed it in
the island of Woo-sha-kya, where the embassy was
detained, in consequence of the wind being too
strong for the continuance of the navigation. The
day was passed in walking round the island, the
greater part of which was cultivated w-ith rice,
wheat, and vegetables. The cultivation on the
opposite bank was cotton, buck-wheat, and beans.
One plantation of tea was met with in full flower.''
The places that produce fine teas are, like the sjjots
which grow fine wines, extremely limited : those
producing coarse teas are widely spread. The
proprietor of the tea-farm must not only under-
stand agriculture, but he must likcAvise be ac-
quainted with the laws that govern vegetable life :
he must know the precise moment at which the
leaves are imbued with their richest juice; he
must judge when they are to be gathered for
the delicacy of their flavour, and when for that
coarser taste which suits the various palates of his
customers. In picking he must be very careful,
lest he injure the crop in the early spring, and thus

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 2?

prevent the development of the second and third
gatherings, which, though not of equal value, are of
much importance to him. He must likewise be
aware of the adjustment of the heat necessary
for the drying and curing the leaves ; upon which,
probably, quite as much depends as upon the state
of maturity to which the leaves have arrived.
These minutiae, which to the superficial observer
appear but of little moment, are of the greatest
consequence.

Those who have paid the slightest attention to the
collection and the preparation of leaves employed
for medicinal purposes, will be aware of the great
nicety, and the extreme carefulness, requisite for
the preservation of the innate virtues of plants.
Some of these are only to be gathered on a dry
and sunny day, as soon as the dew is off; for
should the slightest portion of moisture remain upon
them, after they have ceased to be connected with
the parent stem,, they become perfectly inert. A
particle of fluid upon* digitalis or foxglove, one of
the most powerful indigenous remedies we possess,
and which reduces rapidly the action of the heart,
may totally destroy its activity. The deadly aconite,
belladonna, henbane, will be useless if they be ngt
dried in a room from which the smallest ray of light
is excluded. Hemlock loses, too, its subtle and
powerful aroma. However trifling the vast number
of manipulations and the endless processes of drying
may appear, they are of great importance, especially
where the operations are ^carried on on a large
scale. It is only by a practical knowledge of the

28 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

delicacy of vegetable matter, of the evanescence of
its aroma, of the rapidity with which its compo-
nent parts enter into new changes, so that fresh
principles are developed, that we can form an
estimate of the experience and the judgment re-
quired in the simplest treatment of leaves for their
varied purposes.

At the proper period for the commencement of
plantation, the ground is dressed with great care,
most probably according to the custom of each
particular cultivator, as we find to be the case with
other plants useful to man. Any number of seeds
suitable to the soil, not usually less than six or more
than sixteen, contained in their capsules, are put
into a hole four or five inches in the ground, at
certain distances from each other : they are then
allowed to vegetate, by some, without any other
care ; by others, the greatest attention is paid to the
removal of weeds, the manuring of the land, and
occasionally watering. When the shrub has grown
about three years, the leaves are ready for picking.
This is done with the greatest care : they are not
plucked by hands ful, but each leaf separately.
They are thus, although the process be somewhat
tedious, enabled to collect, in the course of the day,
fifteen pounds. The following account has been
given of a tea-farm which supplies the imperial fa-
mily with imperial or bloom tea: — " The plantation
is inclosed with hedges, and likewise surrounded
with a broad ditch for further security. The trees
are planted to form regular rows with intervening
walks. Persons are appointed to superintend the

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 29

place, and preserve the leaves from injury or dirt.
The labourers who are to gather them, for some
weeks before they begin, abstain from every kind
of gross food, or whatever might endanger commu-
nicating any ill flavour : they pluck them, also, with
no less delicacy, having on thin gloves." During
the tea harvest, it would seem, great attention is
paid to the diet of the husbandman.

In the common tea-plant, the commencement of
the leaf-gathering takes place in the early spring ;
and three different crops are obtained during the
summer. Scarcely, in the first instance, has the
leaf attained its growth, and whilst it is yet bud-
ding into life, than the picking commences ; and the
tea will be fine in proportion to the tender age
of the leaf; the most agreeable aroma and the
most delicious flavour are then obtained from it.
A soft white down covers the first leaflets,
which is called, in the Chinese language, Pa-ho,
and hence our name Pekoe, the most exquisitely
flavoured of those teas with which we are ac-
quainted. Trees, until they reach the sixth year,
furnish this tea. A few days' longer growth supplies
us with the black leaf Pekoe. In the month of May,
the leaves that have grown since the first gathering,
having arrived at maturity, are stripped from the
trees : these form the Souchong — the Seaou-
choung, — "the small or scarce sort." About six
weeks after this, there is a third gathering of the
new crop thrown out ; and from the Chinese word,
Koong-fou, signifying labour or assiduity, springs
our term Congou. From this a particular part is

30 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

selected, called Kien-poey, — a selection which
is known to us under the name of Campoy.
The tea familiar to us under the appellation of
Bohea, should be the produce of the district from
which it derives its name : it is a rough preparation
of the later-grown leaves, which yield a beverage
of little strength and of inferior flavour. Green teas
undergo the same kind of harvest. From the tender
leaflets is produced Hyson ; and a very expensive
kind, Loontsing, is more particularly prized : it was
called Yutsein, " before the rains ; " whilst Hyson
is a corruption from *' flowery spring.'' The Gun-
powder is a Hyson gathered with great attention,
and rolled with much nicety and care : indeed, it
would appear to be a selection of the more delicate
leaves. The coarser and yellower leaves remaining
after this selection are called Hyson Skin. The
Twankay is the last gathered crop, and consists of
an older leaf; in which less attention is paid to the
manipulations.

The judgment shown in collecting the leaves at
the various seasons evinces a great knowledge of
vegetable organization, and of the succession of
phenomena which are developed during the pro-
gress of life. It is in the early spring that the sap
or vegetable blood has little to convey to the leaf
but the mucilaginous principle, and that aroma,
peculiar to each vegetable, of whose existence
we are by its effects rendered sensible, but of which
our means of examination are so limited. On the
first bursting into existence, leaves and flowers are
endued with an evanescent odour, which art has at-

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 31

tempted to fix, and to diffuse through other bodies.
Upon this much of the flavour of the plant depends ;
and if we would wish to obtain all that strikingly
characterises the vegetable, we must gather it as
soon as this principle is at all developed. At a
later period of the year, not only has the aromatic
principle been exhaled, but the mucilaginous pro-
perties are exchanged. A great proportion of the
earthy phosphates exist in all plants in the month
of May, but they are much diminished as the year
advances.

When the leaves have been picked, they are
left in large bamboo baskets, exposed to the rays
of the sun, being only occasionally stirred. After
two or three hours, the peasants take the baskets
into the house, and in the course of half an hour
a series of manipulations commence, during which
tlie manufacturer, at intervals of an hour, rolls the
leaves three or four times between his fingers until
they have become as soft as leather. When this
operation is concluded, they are ready for the
application of heat, for the purpose of drying and
rendering them crisp. The temperature is adjusted
according to the delicacy of the particular tea, and
all the apparatus is regulated with the utmost
nicety. The ordinary process is to place about
two pounds of tea in a hot cast-iron pan, fixed in a
small circular mud fireplace, heated by a fire of
straw or of bamboo. The leaves are briskly agi-
tated with the naked hand, to prevent their being
burnt, and that each may have its due exposure
to the proper action of the heat. When they have

32 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL

become sufficiently liot, they are placed in a closely
worked bamboo basket, and thrown from it upon a
table, where they are distributed into two or three
parcels. Another set of manipulators roll them into
balls with great gentleness and caution, and by a
peculiar mode of handling them, express any juice
they may contain. The leaves after this are again
taken back to the hot pans, again turned with the
naked hand, and, when heated, again removed.
They are then spread on a. sieve, rolled again, and
then exposed to the action of heat, the whole being
placed over a charcoal fire ; during this stage great
care is necessary, lest any smoke should affect the
tea. In all the varied changes from basket to
basket, and they sometimes undergo many, atten-
tion is paid lest any receiver should ever be
placed upon the ground. The number of exposures
to the action of the fire is sometimes very great,
and an examination takes place from time to time,
to ascertain the state to which the leaves have
arrived. When they become crisp, and are easily
broken, they are removed from the fire, allowed to
cool, and the process again commenced, until the
experienced manufacturer is fully satisfied with the
condition and the proper appearance of the tea.

Although the names of a great number of teas
are familiar to us in this country, it is to be borne
in mind that these are almost all arbitrarily applied ;
that each one is not the peculiar j)roducc of a
particular farm ; nor are the crops of different
lands kept as distinct from each other as are the
different wines from particular vineyards. The

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 33

agents of the Hong merchants visit the farms at
the proper periods ; they purchase from the grower
his stock ; they mix together the leaves from many
farmers, in such proportions as they think most
suitable to the predominant taste of their customers.
The great discrimination they exercise is between
the leaves of young and old shrubs : they employ a
number of women and children to distribute these
into fine, middling, and common teas; they then mix
them, or they cause them to undergo a process of
refiring, and make the crop, which has been ga-
thered from an inferior farm, bear the resemblance
of a better tea, or they mingle the two together.
These agents possess a great deal of judgment ; and
it is generally believed that, notwithstanding they
have the cunning and love of profit which belongs
to the Chinaman generally, they execute their
task with much fidelity. It is also understood that
the best teas of particular districts find their way
into England. It is not, however, to be disguised,
that they have undergone a greater degree of pre-
paration than suits them for a Chinaman's taste ; and
the residents at Canton consider that which they
have for their own domestic supply to be much
more agreeable and delicately flavoured than that
which reaches our markets. This, however, may be
accounted for from the well-known fact, that all
vegetable products must lose a considerable portion
of their natural aroma by long keeping, and par-
ticularly by transportation across the ocean. A
certain degree of heat is absolutely necessary for
the tea even in China ; for if it be eat when newly

D

34 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

gathered, or previous to its having undergone any
operation, it proves narcotic, and is ranked amongst
the deleterious vegetables. It is therefore kept for
some time and dried by heat for the use of the
Chinese ; but for the European markets it undergoes
a much longer process, which, if it do not exert
much influence upon the characteristic qualities of
the infusion made from it, must decidedly dissipate
much of that aroma which gives to plants one of
their powers.

The teas that have been collected by the agency
of the persons employed by the Hong merchants
are made into parcels, containing from one hundred
to six hundred chests ; and each of these bears its
own peculiar mark or characteristic name, so that
the purchaser is enabled to ascertain and to dis-
tinguish each particular variety brought into the
market. These distinctive marks are known only
to those who have been initiated into the mysteries
of the trade carried on by the Chinese with the
English or American merchants, who are the prin-
cipal Canton consumers, as the markets of Russia
are entirely supplied through Tartary, and are
principally dependent on the great fair held an-
nually at Nishni Novogorod, at which are assembled
merchants from all the provinces of Asia, who
there interchange their commodities upon a scale
now unknown in Europe, but for which the great
fairs of former days were established. These have
since been superseded by the more organized com-
munication which commerce has gradually intro-
duced.

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 35

Boliea is the name of a district celebrated for the
growth of black tea, and it is in China generally ap-
plied to the varieties of black tea brought from that
particular part of the country, in contra-distinction to
those grown elsewhere ; thus, Bohea Congou, Bohea
Souchong, or Bohea Pekoe, would imply that they
actually came from that part of the country. In
England, however, the appellation Bohea was given
to all black teas brought to this country, before we
admitted our present distinctions. We now apply it
to the lowest grade of the black tea; that which
was brought into this country by the East India
Company, was known by the exporters under the
names of Canton Bohea and Fokien Bohea.

The Canton Bohea is composed of the tea which
remained unsold by the persons who supply the
European market at the close of the season^ in con-
sequence of its inferiority to the rest of the supply.
To this refused portion, an inferior tea fromWo-ping
is added, which previously undergoes fresh firing, to
enable it to bear its voyage to England. These two
varieties form together a tea, which can be aiforded
cheaper to the consumers here, in comparison with
the better sorts of the article. The composition
varies in its quantity of Wo-ping, which is an
inferior Congou, according to its price in the market :
it has seldom less than five-tenths, but if the Congou
happen to be cheap, the quantity is increased. The
Fokien Bohea, although it be not a mixture, is not
much more valuable ; it is made up of the last leaves
gathered late in the year, and of the general refuse
of the tea leaves, after all the best have been

D 2

36 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

gathered. When Bohea is brought to market in Eng-
land, it is frequently mixed with other teas, and is
sold under three distinct grades, — ordinary, good,
and middling Bohea ; and the better sort of Boheas
often approximates very closely to inferior Congou,
so that some judgment is necessary to distinguish
them. At an early period Bohea was a very much
v/orse tea than it now is, for not only was it com-
posed of the large old leaves, and made up of those
which had been damaged during manipulation, but
leaves were substituted for it, which had never
grown on the tea-shrub. It has gradually improved,
and much of that which is now in the country fur-
nishes a tolerably good beverage.

Bohea, which at one period formed about a
sixth of the importation made by the East India
Company, has gradually diminished. It seldom un-
dergoes such careful examination as do the other
teas. That which is ordinarily found amongst tea-
dealers presents a mixture of large leaves and small,
with a considerable quantit}'^ of pieces, either so
much broken or crushed as to resemble dust. The
colour is a darkish brown ; the best is of a smaller
size and a blackish hue : there is occasionally a
tinge of green at the edges; sometimes the larger
leaves adhere closely to each other ; those that are
yellow are not good. A quantity of stalks may be
found amongst them. The aroma is very faint, and
has been generally compared to that M'hich emanates
from hay kept for a great length of time. If it have
a faint smell, it is seldom good. Upon infusion this
tea gives a mahogany colour to the water. It has a

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 37

bitter taste, and requires much milk and sugar.
This tea has not now a very great consumj)tion in
this country ; for even the humbler classes, if their
means at all admit of it, will not purchase it: gener-
ally speaking, they are excellent judges of tea.
There is on this subject some very interesting in-
formation to be collected from the evidence of
numerous respectable tea-dealers examined before
a Committee of the House of Commons. Most of
them were residents in large towns, and had ample
opportunity of becoming acquainted with the pre-
vailing taste of the industrious inhabitants. Messrs.
Nutter of Birmingham observed, on that occasion,
that the improvident poor buy Bohea, not from
preference but necessity ; whilst the provident and
industrious consume scarcely any of the Bohea.
Mr. Thorpe of Leeds likewise said, that the working
and middling classes always buy the finest tea ; and
these opinions are amply borne out by the testi-
monies of Mr. Weatherall of Stockton, Mr. Ridout
of Canterbury, Messrs. Macdowell and Trainer of
Wiveliscombe, Messrs. Constance and Matthews of
Bath, Mr. Bryant of Bristol, I\Tr. Heming of Perth,
and Mr. Watson of Newcastle. Mr, Miller, of the
firm of Miller and Lowcock, at one period the
largest purchasers of teas at the East India Com-
pany's sales, said that they have supplied to their
correspondents in England in five years, upon an
average, five hundred thousand pounds' weight of all
other descriptions of tea, to one hundred thousand
pounds' weight of Bohea. In Scotland they have
supplied, upon the average, one chest of Bohea to

D 3

38 TEA C ITS MEDICINAL

nine of Congou. In Dublin they have not had a
very extensive, but a very respectable, business ;
and two of their principal friends there have never
had a single chest of Bohea ; but he believed the
average to be, as Mr. Butler, a respectable mer-
chant, stated, one chest of Bohea tea to eight of
Congou. He likewise stated that the poor are ex-
cellent judges of tea, and have a great nicety of dis-
crimination, preferring good Congou ; and that they
will walk very considerable distances to j)urchase
at a shop at which they can rely. It would alto-
gether appear, that a very small quantity of Canton
Bohea is sold in this country in the state in which it
is imported, but that it is mixed by the retailer with
the Congou tea, and that it would require a very
discriminating eye to judge of the difference between
a superior Bohea and an inferior Congou.

Congou, or Cong-fou, is a superior kind of Bohea :
the leaves are gathered from the shrub somewhat
earlier, or it may be occasionally a selection from
the best Bohea: it has a greater variety of qualities
than Bohea, and has had considerable attention paid
to its preparation for its exportation from China:
it does not yield so high a colour to water as Bohea,
a pale amber being the general result : the leaf has
a blacker appearance, should feel crisp, and be
easily crumbled : its smell is agreeable when good,
but, when indifferent, it has a heated smell, and a
faint and unpleasant taste ; much of these qualities
will depend upon the selection. In London there
are three varieties acknowledged by the trade, —
Congou, Campoi Congou, and Ankoy Congou. The

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 39

Campoi has an agreeable violet smell, and is re-
markable for its pleasant flavour ; it is so little to
be distinguished from Souchong, that the East India
Company gave whichever name they pleased to the
importation, according to the demand for the one
or the other in the British market. A great deal
of their tea imported as Souchong, should have
been brought forward as Campoi ; and it may fairly
be stated that, practically, between Souchong and
Campoi there is no very intelligible difference ; it
may certainly be somewhat fresher, but it does not
possess any marked superiority over good Congou.
The inhabitants of the district called Ankoy, have
exerted themselves much in the cultivation and pre-
paration of tea ; and they convert a good crop of
the tea into a very excellent quality, a portion
of which they especially attend to for the English
market ; although the English residents at Canton do
think not very highly of the Ankoy Congou ; nor has
it become a favourite in this country : its flavour
is said to be lost on the voyage. There seems to
have been a prejudice against this tea; and although
the inhabitants of the district have the reputation
of endeavouring to make a character, yet they do
not appear to have succeeded. It is said that they
often mix their products with the leaves of other
trees ; and Milburn, in the Oriental Commerce, ob-
serves, " that not being much esteemed in London,
it should not be taken by the commanders and
officers to exchange for such part of their invest-
ments as cannot be disposed of by public sale ; it
should be rejected if it possibly can," he continues,

D 4

40 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

" and any other tea taken instead of it." Congou is
the tea most consumed in England; but a part
of that which is retailed, is a mixture of Congoa
and of Bohea, which is sold under the general name
of Congou. The proportions of these mingled to-
gether, vary according to the tea-dealers' idea of
that which may suit his customers generally, and
also for the purpose of increasing his profit. The
great mass of the inhabitants of London like a good
strong-flavoured Congou; and they think very justly,
that two spoonsful of Congou will go further than
tliree of an inferior class of tea. The wholesale
dealer only mixes the tea when called upon to do so
by the retail trader ; nor would he maintain the high
character which belongs to that class of merchants,
if he were not to sell as Bohea that which he ob-
tained as such, and Congou without altering its
quality ; but the tea-dealer upon the smaller scale
is constantly called on to suit the caprice of the
consumer, and is often obliged to make up a tea to
suit a particular part of the country. Since permits
have ceased to be required for the transport of tea
from one place to another, opportunities occur,
which the greedy tea-dealer avails himself of, to mix
up teas of various grades, without reproach to his
conscience. Some individuals have made large for-
tunes by the exhibition of great judgment in making
mixtures, which have gained the estimation of the
consumers; and to this there can be no objection, if
it be honestly carried into execution.

Souchong. Seaou-chung, the small kind, is a
good tea, well flavoured, and supposed to be some-

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 41

what of a higher quality than the best Congou ; it
is said to be very carefully dried ; it is crisper and
drier than the other black teas ; its smell is more
fragrant, and it is a little rough to the palate. It
forms a good infusion of a light amber colour, and
the leaves change to a reddish brown. There are
two kinds of Souchong which do not find their
W'ay as generally recognised teas, as does the ordi-
nary Souchong, nsunelj, the Caper Souchong and
the Padre Souchong. The Caper Souchong has
obtained its name from the leaf being rolled up, so
as to resemble the caper ; it is one of the many
varieties which was not regularly brought into the
country by the East India Company; the leaves
are of a fine black gloss, heavy; there is a plea-
sant fragrance attached to them, and they are of
a very agreeable flavour; but the Padre Souchong,
or Pow-Chong, is even more highly tasted. It
scarcely bears the sea voyage, and w'hat was found
in this country was generally brought as presents.
There are now very large quantities imported, but
of a very inferior quality.

Pekoe, or Pa-ho_, is the most valuable of the black
teas ; although it may be collected from plants of all
ages, yet the tea-tree of three years' standing yields
the best. It should be gathered as soon as the leaves
are developed, and should be the tenderest. The
more flowers found amongst its leaves the better is
the sort. Its flavour is very agreeable, but it is
rather too strongly marked ; it is taken in a much
more palatable form when mixed with Souchong,
than when it is drank alone.

42 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

The green teas familiar to us are Hyson, Gun-
powder, Singlo, and Twankay. The Hyson is
the first crop of the green tea-plant ; it has a fine
blooming appearance ; the leaf is small, and well
rolled up, but on infusion it opens clear and
smooth ; should it be shrivelled up, it is not good ;
it is dry and crisjD, and crumbles easily; it im-
parts a green tinge to water, which acquires a
strong pungent taste, yielding an agreeable odour.
The Hyson Skin is a selection from the ordinary
Hyson, of those leaves which are not so strikingly
good ; if they are not so well formed, or not so
well coloured, they are removed from the fine
Hyson, and an inferior quality of this tea is the
result. It has a brassy taste, without the fine aroma
of Hyson ; nor has it the external characteristics,
— there is very little bloom. On the other hand,
Gunpowder is a selection from the Hyson of the
very best leaves that are found ; these are rolled up
into firm hard balls, which resemble small pearls.
This tea is of exquisite flavour, and the drinkers
of green tea prefer it to all others. The slightest
exposure to air, or even the action of the breath,
quickly dissipates the fine aroma which is one
of its most striking characteristics. Adultera-
tions of this tea have been so common, both in
China and in this country, that the lover of this
variety seems seldom satisfied that he is drinking it
in all its purity : indeed, such are the impositions
practised with regard to it, that it is sometimes
advertised for sale at a less price than it can be
purchased at Canton.

And moral effects. 43

Singlo and Twankay are the last gatherings of
the green tea during the summer season, of which
the latter is considered the best. These gatherings
are distributed into two or three sorts. Great care
is taken that the leaves of the first should be tho-
roughly formed, that they should have their full
development, and that they be perfectly clean.
After this has been done, the second selection takes
place of the leaves, which are in a secondary state
of perfection, and what remains forms the inferior
quality of these teas. The leaves of this sort are
observed to be more pointed, and to be somewhat
larger than those of the black tea. The infusion
formed by these sorts is of a bright green ; the
Twankay, however, yields a paler colour than the
Singlo. There are many different sorts of both
these teas, and either the art of preparation is less
thoroughly understood, or they are more easily
affected by the variations of temperature, of seasons,
and of soil ; but certain it is that none of the green
teas are so uniform in their characteristics as are
the black. Many experienced persons believe that
the green tea is altogether artificially prepared ;
whilst others consider that the black is the same
leaf, but that it undergoes the process w^hich gives
it colour, and renders it much milder in its effects.
The Chinese themselves rarely drink green tea,
and then only the produce of particular farms,
which have obtained a high character. The leaves
of all of them are much more liable to be changed by
the action of the atmospheric air, and very speedily
lose that beautiful bloom which, amongst many tea-

44 TEA ; 'its medicinal

drinkers, is highly valued. The heavier these teas
weigh, the better are they imagined to be ; and they
are much oftener scented by some other leaf; and
great is the attention of the factor given to attract
his customer by the fragrance and by the a^Dpear-
ance. He often gives an additional dryness to the
leaf after damp weather; and generally, immediately
before he brings it in the market for sale, he again
dries it, to give the crispness which should belong to
it. It often happens that those teas which strike the
eye at Canton, are found, on their arrival in America,
where they are very much esteemed and generally
preferred to the black, not to satisfy the consumer,
from the changes that have occurred during the
voyage.

These teas are often dried over the fumes of
burning indigo ; and a very small quantity mixed
with powdered gypsum, is delicately sprinkled over
them, which adds to the colour. Different modes of
flavouring the tea are likewise practised: the blossom
buds of fragrant flowers are thrown amongst the
finest teas. In the Loontsing Pekoe these are very
discernible. After torrefaction has taken place in the
iron pans destined for that purpose, the dried leaves
are delicately touched with a camel-hair pencil, which
has been dipped in spirituous solutions of resinous
and aromatic gums ; and for this purpose a number
of children are employed. The Chinese distinguish
two kinds, more particularly the Boui, or Bou Tcha,
and the Soumlo, which are reserved for the invalid.
They likewise make it into cakes ; and of this sort
there is a particular kind, called Mandarin Tea, which

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 45

is an extract from the leaves. This is rarely im-
ported into England. Sir Anthony Carlisle pre-
sented, however^ a very fine specimen of it to the
Royal Medico-Botanical Society ; it was in the form
of a dry, solid, blackish mass, easily broken and
reduced to powder. There are other varieties
which occasionally find their way into this country
as presents. Ning-yong, Pouchong, Orange Pekoe,
Hung Muey, have become within a few years fa-
miliar to us ; and there is little doubt other names
will soon be made known to us, and their characters
will be investigated and compared. Amongst those
that are brought to the Canton markets are,
Quongsow, Heeh Ke, Kee Cheem, Sing Kee, Quang
Tay, Quang Fat, Quang Tack, Ka Kee, Cheem
Chunn, Wa Chunn, Yock Chunn, and other eupho-
nous names, which may hereafter be as well known
to us as any of those which, from their long reputa-
tion, have become standard teas.

There is a tea known throughout the north of
Europe under the name of Caravan Tea, and in
some places under that of Kaisar-tae, or the
Emperors tea, imported into Russia by way of
Kiachta. It is seldom found in this country ;
the leaf is remarkably large, not much dried, and
of a deep black colour, mixed with footstalks of
the plant, and occasionally slender twigs of the
smallest dimensions. These teas are in all
respects superior in point of taste and flavour to
those consumed in England, France, and Holland.
They are not the produce of the provinces which
furnish these markets, but of the centre of China.

46 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

They are conveyed by land, to whicli much of
their superiority is to be attributed, as the sea
voyage deteriorates all teas, and causes them to
lose their strength, freshness, and flavour. As Mr.
Crawfurd has observed, the difference between the
teas coming sea-wise, and those brought by land
through Kiachta is so remarkable, that it is no
exaggeration to say, — that a pound of the last goes
as far as two pounds of the first. The Caravan tea
finds its way into Germany ; in Bohemia I have
tasted some of a remarkably fine 'quality, but it is
difficult to get it genuine. That which is occasion-
ally met with in this country has lost much of its
quality, though it still has a considerable share of
flavour and aroma. It requires to be infused in much
larger quantities than ordinary Souchong, which
proves its inferiority to the Caravan tea of Russia.
All classes consume the Caravan tea, from the lord
to the serf. The course of the Russian trade
with China is of excessive tediousness ; and the
conveyance by water occupies no less a space of
time than three years ; when it is brought by land
a year is consumed. It is, however, to be remem-
bered in the computation of the water carriage,
that the actual time in which it is on its jour-
ney, is about three or four months in each sum-
mer, for the rivers are frozen up and impassable for
eight or nine months in each year. The black tea
is that which is preferred ; for the green tea is not
a favourite in Russia. The duty is precisely the
same there on all the qualities, whether they be
good, bad, or indifferent. The trade is carried on

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 47

by the Russian merchants, entirely in barter, for
the productions of Russia : hence the price of tea
at Kiachta is unknown. All persons engaging in
the traffic pay a sort of corporation tax, which
licenses this employment : they are for the most
part inhabitants of Muscovy, but any person may
obtain the requisite permission on paying the
droits des guildes.

My own experience of the excellence of tea in
Russia arose out of a curious incident, which
occurred to me during a hasty visit I made to
that highly interesting country. Previous to
this adver^ture, I had been in the habit of tak-
ing coffee, as my ordinary beverage, and was by no
means satisfied with it. I had no idea of the pre-
vailing habit of tea-drinking previous to my arrival
at Moscow. In the course of the afternoon I left
my hotel alone, obtaining from my servant a card,
with the name of the street, La Rue de Demetrius,
written upon it. I wandered about that magnificent
citadel, the Kremlin, until dark, and I found myself
at some distance from the point from which I
started, and I endeavoured to return to it, and
asked several persons the way to my street, of which
they all appeared ignorant. I therefore got into one
of the drotzskis, and intimated to my Cossack driver
that I should be enabled to point out my own
street. Although we could not understand each
other, we did our mutual signs : and with the great-
est cheerfulness and goodnature this man drove
me through every street, but I could no where re-
cognise my hotel. He therefore drove me to his

48 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

humble abode in the environs ; he infused the finest
tea that I had ever seen in a peculiarly shaped
saucepan, set it on a stove, and this, -when nearly
boiled, he poured out ; and a more delicious bever-
age, nor one more acceptable after a day's fatigue
and anxiety, I have not tasted. He gave me the
provision his humble cot afforded, and seemed de-
lighted that I cheerfully partook of it. I could not
avoid becoming impatient, and expressing some
anxiety lest I should not recover my hotel. He left
the house, making me understand that he should not
long be absent; and in about ten minutes he re-
turned with a comrade, who evidently was an
Asiatic^ and addressed me in various dialects, all
unintelligible. They seemed to give up the hope
of understanding me, and again left me, to return
with another person, Avho was a German, to whom
I made myself easily understood, told him my tale,
to which he listened with great attention, but had
no idea there was such a street as La Rue de
Demetrius. My Cossack friend, in no way express-
ing the slightest impatience or neglect, set out upon
another expedition, and returned with a Frenchman,
who immediately translated my address into " Me-
triffsky," which was no sooner made known to ray
Cossack, than he cheerfully prepared his horse and
his drotzski, again sallied forth, and brought me safe
to my hotel, accepting the little gratuity I offered
him almost reluctantly. When he understood,
through the German, that I was English, his joy
seemed great : he gave me as a reason, through the
interpreter, that the Emperor Nicholas (of whom he

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 4^

spoke as a deity amongst men) loved the English.
If the blessings of the poor inhabitants of his empire
are dear to a monarch, none can more experience
delightful sensations than the Emperor of Russia.
Whatever may be the political feeling existing
against an absolute monarch, it must be softened
towards the individual, when we find him recog-
nised by his people as a beneficent father.

That damaged black leaves can be manufactured
into green, an anecdote related by Mr. Davis fully
proves. The remission of the tea duties in the
United States, occasioned, in the years 1832 and
1833, a demand for green teas at Canton, Mhich
could not be supplied by the arrivals from the pro-
vinces. The Americans, however, were obliged to
sail with cargoes of green teas within the favourable
season ; they were determined to have these teas,
and the Chinese were determined they should be
supplied. Certain rumours being afloat concerning
the manufacture of green tea from old black leaves,
Mr. Davis became curious to ascertain the fact,
and wdth some difficulty persuaded a Hong mer-
chant to conduct him, accompanied by one of the
inspectors, to the place where the operation was
carried on. Upon reaching the opposite side of the
river, and entering one of these laboratories of fac-
titious Hyson, the parties were witnesses to a
strange scene.

In the first place, large quantities of black tea,
which had been damaged in consequence of the
floods of the previous autumn, were drying in bas-
kets with sieve bottoms, placed over pans of char-

E

50 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

coal. The dried leaves were then transferred ia
portions of a few pounds each to a great number of
cast-iron pans, imbedded in chunam or mortar, over
furnaces. At each pan stood a workman, stirring
the tea rapidly round with his hand, having previ-
ously added a small quantity of turmeric, in powder,
which of course gave the leaves a yellowish or
orange tinge ; but they were still to be made green,
For this purpose some lumps of a fine blue were
produced, together with a white substance, in pow-
der, which, from the names given to them by the
workmen, as well as their appearance, were known
at once to be Prussian blue and gypsum. These
were triturated finely together with a small pestle,
in such proportion as reduced the dark colours of
the blue to a light shade ; and a quantity, equal to a
small tea-sj^oonful, of the powder being added to the
yellowish leaves, these were stirred, as before, over
the fire, until the tea had taken the fine bloom co-
lour of Hyson, with much the same scent. To
prevent all possibility of error regarding the sub-
stances employed, samples of them, together with
the specimens of the leaves in each stage of the pro-
cess, were carried away from the place. The tea
was then handed in small quantities, on broad shal-
low baskets, to a number of women and children,
who carefully picked out the stalks and coarse
or uncurled leaves ; and when this had been
done, it was passed in succession through sieves of
different degrees of fineness. The first sifting was
sold as Hyson Skin, and the last bore the name of
Young Hyson. The Chinese seemed quite con-

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 51

scious of the real character of the occupation in
which they were engaged ; for, on attempting to
enter several other places where the same process
was going on, the doors were speedily closed upon
the party.

There was an idea once prevalent, that the colour
of the green tea was to be ascribed to the drying
the leaves on copper ; but nothing can be more un-
founded than such an opinion, as the pans, one
of which was sent home by an officer of the East
India Company, are of cast-iron. That copper
may be detected in tea is true ; but Bucholz
has shown that it exists in several vegetables ; in-
deed, there are proofs that it enters into the com-
position of a great proportion of animal and veget-
able matter. It is found in coffee in very striking
quantities ; from ten ounces of unroasted coffee
there may be obtained, by the proper manipulations,
a dense precipitate, which will coat two inches of
harpsichord wire with metallic copper. And he
who eats a sandwich, has much more to fear from
the poisonous effects of this metal, than the drinker
of green tea ; for the two slices of bread, the beef,
and the mustard, all have been proved, by the ex-
amination of the chemist, to be capable of forming in
the stomach a metallic crust ; indeed, the only safe
food would be potatoes, for in three pounds no cop-
per could be traced. Dr. O. Shaughnessy, with a
view of elucidating a question, as to the possibility
of mistaking the symptoms of death by poison, took
two eggs, three cups of strong coffee, and eiglit
ounces of bread and butter ; he formed these into a

E 2

52 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

mass, he dried it, and after incinerating it, submitted
it to the proper tests, and the metallic copper was
distinctly obtained. I have, in a lecture which ap-
peared in The Lancet of last year, shown that there is
little reason to doubt of its existence even in the
human blood ; the proportion, however, is very
minute.

A Chinese, whose treatise on teas attracted con-
siderable attention in Canton, and whose opinions
were given in The Canton Register in 1838, states
that the difference of the black and green colours
arises from the different processes that the teas un-
dergo ; he says, —

" The tree which produces the green teas is the
same as that which produces the black teas : there
is no difference between the trunks of the two trees ;
but there is a slight difference in the leaves. The
black tea leaf is long and pointed ; the green tea
leaf is short and round : and this difference is oc-
casioned by the diversity of the two soils ; the
cause of the difference between the colours of the
black and green teas proceeds from the different

methods used in frying jM^ and firing 0'-^ the

leaves. Frying is the first process ; and it is con-
ducted in iron pans, which are placed over bright
charcoal fires, and the leaves are stirred about
quickly by the hand. Firing is the second process ;
then the leaves are put into bamboo baskets, which
are placed over slower charcoal fires, and the leaves
are not stirred.

" The green teas are only fried over slow fires ;

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 53

the leaves are not afterwards fired in bamboo
baskets.

" The black teas are roasted in highly-heated iron
pans, in quantities of only one to two taels (ounces)
at a time, and until each particular leaf is tho-
roughly dry and crisp : the leaves are afterwards
fired over slower fires ; hence the blackness of the
leaf. Thus, although green teas can easily be made
into black teas, black teas cannot be converted into
green : because another colour can be given to
green but not to black teas."

That adulterations and mixtures of inferior teas
with higher qualities are constantly practised in
China, some of the importations which have re-
cently been made fully prove ; and that impositions
have been frequently detected, there can be no
doubt ; but it is at home that we too often have had
reason to complain of the want of honesty in the
mercantile speculator, and the total forgetfulness
of his own honour, and of the confidence which
society reposes in its members.

In every occupation of life there will be found
individuals who, from base and sordid motives, will
practise gross or scandalous impositions upon the
public, regardless of the health and welfare of those
who are unfortunately dependent on them. As a
body, the dealers in tea bear as high a character
as any tradesmen in this great community ; but the
numerous trials and convictions that have taken
place for the substitution of a spurious compound for
genuine tea, prove that there have been mercenary
wretches, who not only have manufactured an ar-

E 3

54} TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

tide of doubtful quality, but have even sold dele-
terious and poisonous mixtures. Various have been
the prosecutions ■which have taken place in the
Court of Exchequer, by which have been unveiled
the infamous frauds practised by some of these ne-
farious persons. In the year 1828 public attention
was much excited by the disclosure of a regular
manufactory of this fabricated tea : it appeared in
evidence in court, that certain parties hired la-
bourers to furnish them with the leaves of the white
and black thorn tree, who were paid at the rate of
two-pence per pound for the produce. These leaves,
that they might be converted into an article resem-
bling black tea, were first boiled, then baked upon
an iroA plate, and, when dried, rubbed with the hand,
in order to produce the curl which belongs to the
genuine tea ; the colour was given by logwood, so
that the infusion of logwood was drunk instead of
tea; this was, however, a harmless preparation in com-
parison with that which the artificial green tea was
made to undergo. In this manufacture the leaves,
after being pressed and dried, were laid upon sheets
of copper, where they received their colour from an
article known by the name of Dutch pink, one of
the component parts of this powder being white
lead ; to which was added, for the purpose of pro-
ducing that fine green bloom visible in good green
tea, verdegris : thus it appeared, that, whilst the
purchaser believed he was drinking a pleasant
and nutritious beverage, he was swallowing the
produce of the hedges round the metropolis, pre-
pared in the most noxious manner. The persons

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 53

who delivered their evidence stated only what they
saw ; and their evidence was sufficient, as may be
seen by the report of the trials given in the public
journals of the day, to produce a most extraordinary
sensation ; or, to use the words employed on one
occasion_, " a feeling of horror seemed here to per-
vade the whole court." The penalties which fol-
lowed in this case upon the verdict for the crown,
amounted to 840/. ; a sum by no means large, when
considered in relation to the enormity of the
offence.

Several informations were laid at the same time
against tea-dealers and grocers ; and the solicitor
of the Excise had in court a box, containing up-
wards of twenty samples of diiferent qualities of
tea, from the most costly to the most common.
During one investigation Mr. Hyslop of Croydon
stated, that in his perambulations through his
woods and grounds, his notice was attracted by
several women, who, he observed, were daily pick-
ing ash, sloe, and elder leaves from the trees. He
was fearful they would damage the young trees
and hedges, and his curiosity led him to inquire
for what purpose they wanted those leaves. One
of the women informed him that they came every
day from London, a distance of about twelve miles,
to pick those leaves, and returned every evening
with a bag full ; that thej'^ were paid at the rate
of one penny a pound for them ; and that they were,
as they understood^ intended for an eminent che-
mist and druggist in town, who used them in some
patent medicines ; for, by a late discovery, ash

E 4

56 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

leaves, particularly of young branches, were found
in every respect a substitute for senna ; and that a
great quantity were exported both to the East and
West Indies. Mr. Hyslop further stated that, taking
compassion on the poor women who came such a
distance, and finding they picked the leaves care-
fully, without doing any injury to the trees or
hedges, he permitted them to pick as much as they
chose ; and that he likewise gave one of the women
a shilling two or three times : but he did not in the
least suspect that those leaves were intended to be
imposed on the public for tea. On one occasion
an excise officer gave evidence before the magis-
trates, that he found in one house a quantity of
leaves, half of them were ash, and a great part sloe
leaves. The weight of what he found was about
166lbs. ; some of them being in a green state,
the others manufactured : ' such as were green
appeared to him be sloe leaves, or ash. Part of
the leaves were laid out upon screens, and some
on stoves, for the purpose of drying. He also
found some sieves, upon which the manufactured
article was spread out ; there was also an iron pot,
in which was deposited a sort of colouring matter.
In this pot he also found some leaves. The manu-
factured article found in the house very much
resembled tea. In another house he found, with
other excise officers, twelve casks of fabricated tea,
nailed down ; they were examined, and contained
the article he had seen on the former occasion.
The casks were such as American flour was com-
monly imported in, and the surface was covered

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 57

with paper. The leaves were brought before the
magistrates in their varied stages of manufacture.
One sort was made to be mixed with ordinary
Bohea, in the proportion of six pounds of the spu-
rious kind to two pounds of real tea. Some of the
persons employed for this process were Prussian
blue manufacturers.

In order to allay the excitement of the public,
as well as to do justice to themselves, the more
respectable tea-dealers not only disclaimed all
knowledge of the parties implicated in the fright-
ful disclosures which had occurred, but strenu-
ously pointed out how much their own interests
would lead them to defend the public from the
shameful impositions so practised. Amongst those
who took an anxious part on the occasion, was
Mr. Richard Twining : at one of the sales of
the East India Company's teas, he dwelt forcibly
upon the odium that would rest upon the whole
body of tea-dealers, instead . of a few obscure
individuals, if they did not positively deny the
reports in circulation, that nine-tenths of the tea-
trade adulterated their tea with ash, sloe, and other
leaves. He felt satisfied that no respectable house
in the City of London was guilty of such illegal
practices, and therefore they ought not to suffer an
imputation of so serious a nature to pass unno-
ticed. At first he and other persons, the heads of
the trade, thought that the falsehood of so general
a censure was so glaring, that no person would
give credence to it, and therefore it would be best
not to notice the aspersion : but this statement

58 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

had gained such belief, that he thought it necessary
that a committee should be appointed by the gene-
ral body of the tea-trade, with a view to examine
what course should be pursued to expose the per-
petrators of such an abominable fraud. This
proposition was seconded, and the appointment of
highly influential persons to act as a committee
was made ; but the determined manner in which
the state prosecutions were carried on, quickly
exposed and punished the real practisers of the
deceit, the Board of Excise feeling, that, not only
for the sake of the revenue, but for the satisfac-
tion of the people, it was necessary to take imme-
diate and decided steps.

Sloe leaves have been more generally employed
in this nefarious practice; and in the year 1778,
there was a printed circular, signed by the chairman
and secretary of a company of grocers at Norwich,
stating that they had seen a small quantity of green
tea, of which one fourth-j3art was avowedly sloe
leaves. In the reign of George II. an act of
Parliament recites, that " several ill-disposed per-
" sons do frequently fabricate, dye, or manufacture
« very great quantities of sloe leaves, liquorice
" leaves, and the leaves of tea that have before been
" used, or the leaves of other trees, shrubs, or plants,
" in imitation of tea, and do likewise mix, colour,
"stain, and dye, such leaves with terra japonica,
"sugar, molasses, clay, logwood, and with other
" ingredients, and do sell and vend the same as
" real tea, to the prejudice of the health of his
" Majesty's subjects, the diminution of his revenue.

AND MORAL EFFECTS'. 59

"and to the ruin of the fair trader :" the act then
declares, '* that the dealer in and seller of such
"sophisticated teas, shall forfeit the sum of ten
"pounds for every pound weight." In a report of
the Committee of the House of Commons, in 1783,
it is stated that the quantity of fictitious tea annu-
ally manufactured from sloe, liquorice, and ash tree
leaves, in different parts of England, to be mixed
with genuine teas, is computed at four millions of
pounds; and that, at a time when the whole quantity
of genuine tea sold by the East India Company,
did not exceed more than six millions of pounds
annually.

In a j^amphlet on the tea-plant it is stated,
that a gentleman had made the most accurate in-
quiries on the subject of the adulteration of tea,'
which had led to his ascertaining the circum-
stances connected with this iniquitous manufacture.
He found that the smouch for mixing with black
teas is made of the leaves of the ash. When
gathered they are first dried in the sun, then baked ;
they are next put upon a floor and trod upon until the
leaves are small, and afterwards sifted and steeped
in copperas with sheep's dung. When the liquor is
strained off, they are baked and trod upon until ^le
leaves are still smaller, when they are considered fit
for use. The quantity manufactured in one small
yillage, and within eight or ten miles of it, cannot
be ascertained, but it is supposed to be about twenty
tons in a year. One man acknowledged to have
made up six hundred weight in every week for six
months together ; the fine was sold at four guineas

60 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

per cwt., equal to nine-pence per lb. ; the coarse at
two guineas per cwt., equal to four-pence half-penny
per lb. Elder buds are manufactured in some
places to represent fine tea. Among the herbs that
have occasionally been employed, are some of the
most deleterious, such as the black and the deadly
nightshade, ivy leaves, the leaves of the alder and
of the potato ; mountain sage, and the husks of
wheat, have likewise been similarly applied. Be-
sides these noxious vegetables, various minerals have
been employed, either to give a curl to the spurious
leaf, or to dye it; vitriolic preparations, verde-
gris, and copperas, have been thus made use of.
There are various pamphlets in existence, published
at the latter end of the last century, under the
names of The Tea Purchaser s Guidcy and The
Itadys and Gentlemaris Tea Table and Useful
Companion^ which contain some curious histories
of the importation of damaged teas, and their sale
by government. It would appear that great quan-
tities were captured on board some Dutch vessels,
and sold ; they were little better than dirt, and so
exceedingly disgustful (according to these author-
ities) to the eye, that few would have thought
them worth acceptance ; the smell of them was a
musty brackishness, occasioned by the salt water
having got to them while at sea, in which state they
were for a considerable time. These, however,
underwent the operations of fumigating, greying,
and dyeing, with so much success, that they deceived
persons conversant with tea ; and even on a trial,
good tea and some of this recovered tea were pro-

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 61

duced, to enable a jury to decide upon the com-
parative qualities.

The Chinese have been accused of themselves
adulterating the tea, and undoubtedly this has
been the case; they have, when discovered, re-
paired the evil as far as they could, by exchanging
that which has been declared bad. The brokers
in the English market are generally upon their
guard, and it would be a matter of the greatest
difficulty for any bad trash to find its way into the
market. They examine with great attention, and
report with undeviating fidelity, that which they
have observed, as to the character and appearance,
as well as the weight, of the contents of every chest
offered at the general sales.

The deceptions practised in the tea trade have
been long a subject of great notoriety and frequent
complaint ; but some of those persons who have
written most vehemently against tea-dealers, have
singularly enough promoted their schemes by giving
recipes on the art of mixing one quality of tea with
another, and entering into minute rules for im-
proving indifferent teas by the addition of the more
highly flavoured qualities. These writers have
stated that Pekoe is seldom agreeable to tea-drinkers
alone, and recommend that one ounce of Pekoe
should be added to a pound of fine Souchong. That
Souchong or Congou may be improved by such means,
there can be no doubt ; but those who have been
in the habit of taking good Pekoe, would never
think of such an admixture. It is, when used un-
mixed, delicious; it must however, to be fairly judged

62 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

of, be tasted without sugar, or with the smallest
possible quantity, and likewise without milk. We
are almost unacquainted with the delightful qua-
lities of what may be designated a natural tea.
Such changes, such mixtures, and such metamor-
phoses, go forward in various quarters, that we
have an artificial compound of a very doubtful
character constantly presented to us. Those who
are the advocates of this system, and the artists of
this manufacture, excuse themselves on the plea
that they must gratify the acquired taste of the
people, who are for the greater part fond of a strong
beverage, and of a tea that can be tasted in spite
of the sugar and milk. They likewise dwell upon
the fact, that even in our wines we prefer too often
a mixture to a natural growth. Thus the claret,
which is so highly prized in England, is a parti-
cular manufacture, called Travail a VAnglaise,
made up of sevei^l stronger wines. We are accused
in this country of wanting the power of appreciating
those delicate flavours to which some other people
are so completely alive. We are declared to be
ignorant of the nice art of administering gratifica-
tion to the palate ; strong stimuli are required,
whilst the more agreeable, yet lightly flavoured
objects escape our attention. The tea sold
under the name of Howqua's Mixture is formed
from several teas ; they are of a good quality,
and have evidently been mingled with much
knowledge of the prevailing taste of the tea-
drinkers of this country ; this mixture has there-
fore become a favourite with many individuals.

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 63

Various importations of a doubtful character were
made when the East India Company's privileges
first expired, and great fears were entertained that
the country would be inundated by an article of
inferior quality. Some teas brought over in 1834^
were indeed of a miserable description, and doubt-
less found vent amongst the different classes of
.consumers. This evil corrected itself; the great
competition in trade inducing the merchant to exert
himself, and the tradesman to bring before the
public that only which meets with a ready sale.

The necessity of .avoiding an entire dependence
upon China for tea, has long struck some of our
most intelligent statesmen ; and the idea of rearing
the tea plant in India, of a quality and in quantity
to satisfy the English market, was sanguinely
entertained : the wealth that would accrue to Bengal
had been estimated, after making every allowance
for the fall in price, from two to three millions
annually ; whilst the prospect of seeing the sandy
and barren slopes of rugged mountains the seats of
agricultural industry, was painted in glowing colours.
The experiments, alike instructive in their failure
and their partial success, which had been instituted
by other nations, proved that in many parts of the
globe the tea-plant vegetated and arrived at a state
of the utmost perfection ; for it had been reared
in Java, St. Helena, Brazil, Penang, Carolina, Rio
Janeiro, and even in Paris and in Corsica it had
been obtained, equal in appearance to the tea of com-
merce. Nor was the reflection absent from the minds
of considerate men, that to China the commerce

64? TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

carried on with this country was by no means so
important to the government that they would make
any very great effort to retain it : the suspension of
the trade might produce serious inconvenience to
the parties concerned, and might diminish the re-
venues ; but the government reposes confidence in
her enormous population, in the certainty that the
empire contains within its own limits every thing
necessary for the welfare of her people ; whilst the
difficulties which her deserts, her mountains, and
her seas, interpose, would prevent hostile aggres-
sion. It was remembered, and the fact was quoted
by Mr. Walker, in an able paper containing a pro-
position for the cultivation of tea in the Nepaul
Hills in 1834, that the trade between Russia and
China was interrupted in the reign of the Empress
Catherine. This interruption caused the cessation
of the importation from Russia to China of woollens
and calicoes, and the industry of England supplied
the want. The empress was first obliged to sue for
a renewal of the intercourse, after a lapse of seven
years. The Emperor Kein Lung replied, in a
despatch, which is said more to have mortified the
empress than any untoward occurrence during her
reign, by calling the Russians beasts, dogs, and
animals ; but added, that as he wished to be at peace
with all the creatures upon the earth, if the trade
was necessary to the Russians, it should be renewed.
The Russians, too glad to avail themselves of the
trade, were obliged to submit to receive, in ex-
change for their Siberian furs, the mouldy tea, mil-
dewed calicoes, musty rhubarbs, which had been

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 65

collected at Kiachta during the suspension ; their
remonstrances meeting with the reply, that as these
goods had been brought for them from an immense
distance, they must take them or none.

There is no region of this earth that demands a
more thorough investigation of its capabilities than
does that magnificent portion of Asia, which this
country has, by the exertion of its prowess in
arts and in arms, rendered subservient to her pros-
perity. Every day developes further powers for
the use of man ; a new era has dawned upon India ;
industry and ingenuity will speedily avail themselves
of the mighty resources which she presents ; and the
men of science, who are now investigating the agri-
cultural produce of that immense territory, will, ere
long, demonstrate to what a state of perfection may
be brought some of those materials which have re-
mained unexplored or forgotten. Amongst the
vast number of subjects which were canvassed, and
again neglected, at the end of the last century, was
the possibility of introducing the tea- plant into
India, and the practicability of preparing it in such
a manner as to obtain supplies equal to the demand
in the European markets. Sir Joseph Banks made
a communication to the Court of Directors of the
Honourable East India Company in 1778, and it
was forwarded to Bengal. In the year 1793, when
Lord Macartney was ambassador to China, he
transmitted some plants from China to Bengal, his
excellency having been informed that there were
districts adapted for their cultivation.

Dr. David Scott sent, in 1826, from Munipore,

F

66 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

specimens of the leaves of a shrub which he be-
lieved to be real tea. Mr. Corbyn, the highly in-
telligent editor of The India Revieiv, and Journal
of Foreign Sciences and the Arts, found in the year
1827, at Sandoway in Arracan, a tea-tree, which
appeared to him quite as fine as those in the neigh-
bouring country of China. He observed it abun-
dant on heights and in valleys. He noticed that
one of the most luxurious petit dishes of the San-
dowayese is a preparation of the tea leaf. They
procure a considerable number of the leaves, and
steep them in a pan for some time, after which they
are beaten into balls ; with these are mixed oil and
garlic. He forwarded a specimen of the leaves,
and a plant in its natural soil, for the governor-
general's gardens at Barrackpore. His report was
at that time considered to be of sufficient import-
ance to induce Lord Amherst to place it on the
public records, and to forward a copy for the Ho-
nourable the Board of Directors. In the year 1834,
for the first time, the subject of producing tea in
India became the subject of the consideration of
the Government there; and Lord William Ben-
tinck laid before his Council two memoirs, the one
which his lordship had received from Mr. Walker
of London, the other from Dr. Wallich, the super-
intendent of the Botanical Garden near Calcutta.
In February of that year, the Committee, which con-
sisted of eleven English and two native gentlemen,
was formed to collect information as to the soils and
situations best adapted to the tea-plant ; and that
Committee deputed their secretary, G. J. Gordon,

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 67

Esq., to ascertain the nature of the soils in China,
to collect tea-plants and seeds, and to procure a few-
Chinese cultivators and tea manufacturers. Of his
mission that gentleman has published a very inter-
esting journal, the result of an attempted ascent of
the river Min, to visit the tea-plantations of the
Fokien provinces ; his party, however, met with so
much opposition, that they were compelled to re-
turn. An excursion to the tea-hills, which produce
the tea known under the designation of Ankoy tea,
was more successful, in company with Messrs.
GutzlafF, Rider, and Nicholson ; and he had oppor-
tunities of gaining information of considerable im-
portance.

In the year 1834 the Bengal Government ap-
pointed a Committee for the purpose of submitting
a plan for the introduction and cultivation of the
tea-plant. This Committee commenced its oper-
ations by issuing a circular, which contained a ge-
neral outline of such information as it had been
enabled to collect, relating to the climate and to the
soil of China most congenial to the growth of the
tea-plant, and they requested to be put in possession
of such knowledge as had as yet been obtained of
any districts in India which resembled the tea-dis-
tricts of China. A letter from Dr. H. Falconer, su-
perintendent of the Botanical Garden at Serampore,
to G. J. Gordon, Esq., the secretary of the Commit-
tee, was published in the Journal of the Asiatic
Society for that year, in which he pointed out the
aptitude of the Himalayan range for tea culture ; he
explained that, although there was no part of the

F 2

68 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

Company's territories in India that could supply all
the conditions of the tea-districts of China in re-
spect of climate, yet there are situations which ap-
proach it so nearly, as strongly to bear out the con-
clusion that tea may be so successfully produced
as to be an object of commercial importance ; he
thought that the plains of India were not adapted
for it, for the mean annual heat of the climate, from
30°N.lat. down to the parallel of Calcutta, was much
beyond that of the tea cultivation in China. In ad-
dition to an excessive summer heat, with either hot
winds or a close scorching air during the day, they
have a barely temperate winter, and heavy periodi-
cal rains. Though some Chinese fruits, such as
the leche, the loquat, the wampee, succeed, yet the
tea-plant requires a greater cold to thrive in. He
thought there was a great similarity between the
climate of the tea-districts of China and that of the
lower heights, or the outer ridges of the Himalayas,
in the parallel of 29° 30', the chief difference perhaps
being more moisture in this country. To his super-
intendence, after his very able report, was com-
mitted the charge of some tea- farms in the localities
which he pointed out ; and results of the most satis-
factory kind were obtained, and anticipations of the
most sanguine success were indulged in.

"Whilst a series of very important investigations
and trials were going forward,, a discovery took
place, which, in the language of the Agricultural
Society of Calcutta, in an address to Lord William
Bentinck, " we do not hesitate to pronounce as one
of a most interesting and important nature, as con-

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 69

nected with the commercial and agricultural interests
of this empire. We allude to the existence of the
real and genuine tea-plant of China, indigenous with-
in the Honourable Company's dominions in Upper
Assam. This shrub is no longer to be looked upon
as a plant of doubtful introduction. It exists, already
planted by the hand of Nature, through a vast ex-
tent of territory in Upper Assam, bordering on the
Chinese and Burmese provinces of Shore and
Yunnan, where it is at present cultivated for its leaf,
both for consumption and exportation."

The indefatigable researches of Captain Jenkins,
the political agent, and Lieutenant Charlton, proved
that the tea-shrub was indigenous to Upper Assam,
which had been conquered from the Burmese ; and
that it was found from Sadeya and Beesa to the
Chinese frontier province of Yunnan, where the
shrub is cultivated for the sake of the leaf. They
forwarded samples of the fruit and leaves.

The Tea Committee, knowing that several species
of Camellia were native in the mountains of Hin-
dostan, and that these were indigenous to the north-
eastern frontier provinces, were disposed to expect
that the tree which had excited the attention of these
gentlemen would prove to be some species of Ca-
mellia ; but the examination of the specimens
which were placed before them fully convinced
them that it was the identical tea of China, the ex-
clusive source of all the varieties and shades of the
tea of commerce. The Supreme Government then
came to a determination of having the tracts of
country producing the plant properly explored. The

F 3

70 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

officers selected for this interesting object were Dr.
Wallich and Mr. Griffith as botanists, and Mr. Mac-
lelland as geologist. They were joined by Mr.
Bruce as guide, who had acquired an intimate
knowledge of the chiefs in whose country the re-
searches were to be carried on. On the 29th of
August, 1835, the Deputation left Calcutta, and ar-
rived at Sadeya, the frontier station of Upper As-
sam, early in January, 1836. On the eleventh of
the month they quitted Sadeya for the tea-tracts.
They arrived at Kufoo on the 15th ; on the follow-
ing day they, for the first time, saw the tea in its
native state. They found it at a distance of about
two miles to the south of the village, in a jungle,
its extent scarcely equalling 200 yards square
measurement : to the eastward it terminated ab-
ruptly ; in other directions it ceased by degrees.
The ground was intersected with numberless small
ravines : there were curious looking mounds, chiefly
round the bases of the larger trees or the clumps of
bamboos. The soil was light, loose, and of a decided
yellow ; the situation was low and damp. It was in
this locality that the Deputation observed trees of
higher stature than those which they found in other
stations. There were five places at which the tea-
plant was examined in its native state : they were
comprehended in a tract of country, situated between
the parallels of about 27° 25' and 24° 45' north lati-
tude, and 96° 94' of east longitude.

Mr. Griffith, in his very valuable report, has enu-
merated the localities, and described their ex-
tent with great precision. From this appears

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 71

the incorrectness of the term which has been
applied to them, of tea-forests. The tea-plant
in none of these places exceeded the size of a small
tree, and almost invariably occurred as an ordinary-
sized shrub : the term patches, as applied by Ellis,
is more descriptive of their appearance, than any
other. They are all clothed with excessively thick
tree-jungle, the trees being of a moderate size. So
thick are these jungles, that Mr. Griffith doubts
whether the tea-plants, not even excepting the
arborescent ones, ever receive the direct rays of the
sun. The tea seems to struggle for existence
amongst many other trees, and becomes tall and
slender, with most of its branches high *up. All
the tea-plants in Assam have been found to grow
and to thrive best near small rivers and pools of
water, and in those places where, after heavy falls
of rain, large quantities of water have accumulated,
and in their struggle to get free, have cut out for
themselves numerous small channels. Mr. Bruce,
in his account of the manufacture of the black tea,
as now practised at Sudeya, has explained this by
means of a diagram. The Deputation left the
country on the 9th of March, after having col-
lected the most satisfactory information, which was
laid before the proper authorities. The consequence
of these inquiries was a determination on the part
of the Government to cultivate the tea, and to com-
mit to Mr. Bruce the superintendence and complete
management of the tea-tracts. He has furnished a
map of all the tracts which he has discovered : there
are many on the south side of the Debree river,

F 4

72 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

called the Muttuck country, which appears to be
one vast tea-district, its whole soil being adapted for
the growth of the shrub. The inhabitants, ignorant
of its value, have cut it down, and converted the
tracts into paddy ground : but they have now learnt
to prize it ; and when they bring to the super-
intendent a branch from any new tract, they are
rewarded. This country belongs to an independent
native Rajah, but is under the control of the British
authority. Some of the tracts are in the Singpho
country, considerably within the British boundarj'-.
The tea-tracts in the Singpho country are much
larger than those in the Muttuck. The inhabitants
have long used tea, and profess to be good judges
of it : they drink it, but prepare it differently from
the Chinese. They pluck the young and tender
leaves, and dry them a little in the sun ; some put
them out in the dew, and then again in the sun,
three successive days; others only after a little
drying put them into hot pans, turn them about until
quite hot, and then place them into the hollow of a
bamboo, and drive the whole down with a stick,
holding and turning the bamboo over the fire all
the time until it is full ; then tie the end up
with leaves, and hang the bamboo up in some
smoky place in the hut : thus prepared, the tea
will keep good for years. All the tea-tracts are in
the valleys.

Few subjects are more deeply interesting, or
involve more important considerations, although
not immediately evident to common observation,
than the laws which apportion the distribution of

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 73

the different tribes of vegetables over the face of
the globe. The influence which temperature, hu-
midity, light, elevation, aspect, and soil, have
upon these beings is such, that, without some know-
ledge of them, the naturalist cannot estimate the
value of such a discovery, as the existence of a
particular vegetable in any district. If it can be
proved that the greater number of these causes,
which exercise an immediate influence upon the
growth of plants generallj'^, are nearly similar in
two situations, we should draw the conclusion that
a particular vegetable of the same species would be
endued with the same characteristic qualities, if
grown on either of these situations; an examina-
tion, therefore, of the vegetation with which the
tea-plant is associated, both in China and in Assam,
becomes most interesting. The data upon which this
is founded are unfortunately somev/hat meagre.
Mr. Griffith, however, has admirably availed him-
self of the materials that have been placed in his
hands ; and although much requires to be filled up,
yet a fair conclusion may be drawn, that the Flora
of Upper Assam approaches to a considerable
extent to that of certain portions of China ; he has
shown the singularity of the Flora of Upper Assam,
which is of such a nature and such an extent as
not to be met with elsewhere in India, at the same
elevation, even as far north as the thirty-first
parallel. He has given a list of 780 species for
Assam, and 623 for China. The chief features of
the Flora of either are tropical, and the singularity of
either consists in the existence of forms in tolerable

74 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

frequency, which could not have been expected
from the latitude, and the small elevation above the
sea. It is singularly remarkable, that of the eight
genera adduced by Dr. Royle in proof of the simi-
larity of the Flora of the mid region of the Hima-
layas with that of the central provinces of China,
five are found in the plains of Assam. Neither
the climate of China, nor that of Upper Assam, is
yet sufficiently known to us to enable us to form a
comparison between them. In Assam there would
seem to be great humidity : the rains are of long
continuance ; they commence in March, and last
till about the middle of October. Altogether we
may fairly, however, draw the inference, that a
very striking similarity in humidity, temperature,
soil, and in all the leading features, exists between
the province of Upper Assam and Keangnan and
Kiangsoo, two districts of China most remarkable
for the production of tea.

Mr. Bruce has raised several plantations, and
given a very interesting narrative of his proceed-
ings, and of the effects of sun and shade. About
the middle of March he brought three or four
thousand young plants from their native soil in
the Muttuck country, about eight days' journey,
and planted them in tree-jungles, eight and ten
close together, in deep shade. From 400 to 500
were planted in different places, some miles from
each other; in the latter end of May he visited
them, and found them as fresh as if they had been
in their native soil, throwing out fresh leaves. As
these thrived so well, he brought from the same

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 75

place 17,000 more young plants, and planted them
in deep shade ; they threw out new leaves and
flourished as much as could be expected, although
the soil was nothing like that from whence they
were taken- — in which point alone the places differ.
He converted a jungle into a tea-garden, on account
of the Government ; where there was formerly one
tea-plant, there were upwards of a dozen, the new
shoots from the old cuttings forming a fine bush,
and showing a great contrast to some of the original
trees, which he permitted to stand, with slender
trunks and a few branches only at the top. This
tract or garden has yielded more tea than twelve
times the same space of ground in the jungles would
have done. He found that, as the plants that had
been cut down grew up again, the leaves acquired
a yellowish tinge from their exposure to the sun,
and were much thicker than those in the jungles ;
but this yellow tinge wore off, and the leaves
became as green as those in the shade. As this
tract answered so well by being cut down and set
fire to, he tried the same experiment upon another
tract close by ; and it came up to what he expected
of it, eight to twelve new shoots having risen from
the old stumps in the place of one. It is now a very
fine tea-tract. Not knowing how this plan of cut-
ting down might answer eventually, and how it might
affect the plants, he took another tract in hand,
allowed all the tea-plants to remain, but cut down
all the other trees, large and small, that gave them
shade, piled them up, and what he could not set fire
to, he threw into the water-courses. These tea-

76 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

plants did well, but still each plant remains single,
consequently has not many leaves, and is much in
the same condition as when under shade. He has
not had sufficient time to show what effect the sun
may have on the leaves, and the tea made from
them. This tract had a curious appearance, the
plants appearing hardly strong enough to support
themselves now they are deprived of their friendly
shade. He has some other tracts under experiment ;
some in which he permitted the jungle-trees to grow,
and only cleared away the brushwood and other
small trees, to admit the rays of the sun ; others with
very little shade. He has cut off branches of the
tea-plants and laid them horizontally in the ground,
with an inch or two of earth on them, and these
threw out numerous shoots the whole length of the
branch ; other branches were simply pushed into
the earth, and they have grown. This was all in the
shade, nor does he think they would answer so well J
in the sun.

Several samples of two sorts of black tea, which
had been prepared from the leaves of the shrub
discovered in Upper Assam, were received in Eng-
land in August, 1838, and in the following November
an additional supply was received.

It appears that this consignment arrived in Cal-
cutta on the last day of January, 1838. In a letter,
dated the 20th March following, the Tea Committee
observed that, " owing to a deficiency in the
original packing, and the great degree of dampness
to which the boxes had been exposed during the
passage from Assam, a considerable portion of the

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 77

tea was either wholly spoiled, or so much deteri-
orated, that no process could have restored it to
any thing like a fair quality. They had, therefore,
rejected all that portion as unfit to be sent home, at
least, with the present supply, deeming it a matter
of primary importance that the value of the first
samples transmitted to Europe should not be dimin-
ished by any thing that might add to the many
disadvantages under which they must necessarily
arrive at a destination, where they would, in all
probability, have to be subjected to the severe test
of examination by the first tea inspectors in
London.

" The Committee begged most particularly to
urge on the consideration of Government, that not
only were the plants, from which the leaves were
gathered, still in their original wild and uncultivated
state, but the details of the various processes em-
ployed in preparing and transmitting the tea, must
obviously have laboured under the many and
serious difficulties and obstacles of a first attempt,
but which may reasonably be expected will be
diminished and progressively overcome, as further
trials are made. Besides which, it ought to be
borne in mind that, strange as it may appear, it is
by no means settled whether it is not actually the
green sort that has been prepared in the fashion of
black tea ; a point which can only be satisfactorily
determined when the green tea manufacturers are
set at work in Assam."

The appearance which is presented by the Assam
tea is that of a large leaf, jet black, or dark brown,

78 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

much curled ; there are many pak-ho points in it ;
some stalks are found in it ; its flavour very much
resembles that of a burnt Caper Souchong ; it has a
delicate and agreeable smell ; it makes a very plea-
sant infusion, of a deeper colour than ordinary
Souchong ; it has every quality that belongs to a
good, sound, unadulterated tea. There cannot be
the slightest doubt of its being the genuine produce
of the real tea-plant ; and when all the facts are
known relating to the preparation of tea, we shall
have introduced into this country many varieties
obtained from the farms which are now in cultiva-
tion ; the sample already imported holding forth
the promise of an excellence which will yet be
obtained.

This lately acquired territory of Assam is situ-
ated at the extreme north-east frontier of Bengal ;
it is almost in immediate contact with the empires
of China and Ava, from each of which it is separated
by a narrow belt of mountainous country, inhabited
by barbarous tribes of independent savages, and
which may be traversed in ten or twelve days.
From this mountain range navigable branches of
the great rivers of Nankin, of Cambodia, of Marta-
ban, of Ava, and of Assam, derive their origin,
and appear designed by nature as the great high-
ways of commerce between the nations of Ultra
Gangetic Asia. Mr. M'Cosh has contributed to
the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal an in-
teresting paper, compiled from original manuscripts
placed in his hands by Captain Jenkins, the in-
defatigable agent to the Governor-General on the

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 79

north-east frontier, and from the letters of Major
White, political agent for Assam. He observes
that this beautiful tract of country, though thinly-
populated by straggling hordes, and allowed to be
profitless in primeval jungle, or run to waste with
luxuriance of vegetation, enjoys all the qualities
requisite for rendering it one of the finest in the
world. Its climate is cold, healthy, and congenial
to European constitutions ; its numerous crystal
streams abound in gold dust and masses of the
solid metal ; its mountains are pregnant with pre-
cious stones and silver ; its atmosphere is perfumed
with tea growing wild and luxuriantly ; and its soil
is so well adapted to all kinds of agricultural pur-
poses, that it may be converted into one continued
garden of silk, cotton, coffee, sugar, as well as
tea, over an extent of many miles. This valu-
able tract is inhabited by various races, some of
them acknowledge the authority of the Burmese,
and some that of China. The Chinese have long
carried on a commercial intercourse with the
Singphos of Assam, and it would even appear that
many thousand maunds of tea are manufactured at
a place called Polong, and exported to China.
Mung-kung, the chief depot of Chinese trade,
situated on the Mugaum river, is from fifteen to
twenty days' journey only from Assam.

Amongst the recent discoveries made in the
remarkable province of Assam, and which lead us
to believe that it may rival, in its productions, the
Celestial Empire, are six varieties of silk-worms,
three of which are different from the well-known

80 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

Bombyx Mori, and from the two others indige-
nous to India, which are worked in Bengal. India
may therefore yet provide Europe with a material
which may be made to supply the place of cotton
and woollen cloth ; and the disappointment, which
has so often been expressed by so many highly
ingenious men, may yet be obviated by the produc-
tion of a silk, which may vie with any that could
be brought to market. A communication on the
silk-worms and silks of Assam by Mr. Hugon, and
another upon the indigenous silk-worms of India
by Dr. Helper, which was read at two meetings
of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, lead to
hopes that Assam may yet be found one of the
most valuable acquisitions to the British empire.
Still further to assist in the develoj)ment of the
vegetable treasures of the province, supplies of
coal can be obtained. Three specimens of
Assamese coal have been transmitted to Calcutta,
which turned out to be of a very respectable
quality ; they burn with a rich flame, being highly
bituminous, and therefore suitable for steam-
engine fires. There are four places in which large
supplies are found. On the south bank of the
Burhampootur river they are easily conveyed to
the neighbouring streams, so that steam navigation
may be carried on upon a great scale, and thus
convey to the most distant points the natural pro-
ductions of this highly favoured spot. All these
points are of the deepest moment to this country;
and deserve the most zealous investigation from
a Government, whose object it must be to dif-

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 81

fuse knowledge and truth throughout the civilised
world.

The tea-plant being distributed so extensively-
over large portions of Upper Assam, there can be
no doubt that an ample supply for European con-
sumption can be obtained thence. Even the pre-
sent tea-tracts may be enlarged almost to any
extent, from the numerous seedlings found amongst
the tea-plants, from the great number of seeds that
can be collected annually, and from the number of
cuttings that may be planted. There appears in
one district a formidable enemy to combat with,
there is scarcely a plant that has not some pa-
rasitic insect living upon it, and destroying the
hopes of the cultivator; thus the tobacco often
becomes the source of disappointment to the
planter, for a worm attacks it in the month of
July, and in an incredible short space of time
destroys a whole field of plants, and his inroads are
almost unknown until the mischief is complete.
The hop-grower, too, has many such difficulties to
encounter; his plantation is often ruined by a
" fly," which commences its attacks early in the
spring, followed somewhat later by a w^inged fly,
which not only commits a series of ravages, but is
the precursor of another, which appears not to eat,
but to poison the leaf. The enemy of the Assam
tea-plant, it would appear from Mr. Bruce's nar-
rative, has some singular characteristics : he had
sown numerous seeds at Sudeya,' in the sun; they
appeared to thrive very well for the first year, but
an insect, which he thinks is called a mole-cricket,

G

82 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

nipped off the young and tender leaves, carried
them into a hole under ground near the root of the
plant, the consequence of which was that he did
not succeed in rearing a single plant. This may be
attributed to the exposure of the plant to the rays
of the sun ; for, he observes, that he sowed some
seeds in his garden under the shade of trees and
bushes, where they succeeded remarkably well.

The idea of Auguste de Candolle is, that the Bur-
mese do not drink the tea of their own frontier,
but import from China what they use ; and he
employs this as an argument against the excellence
of the Assamese tea, which he says is used as a
pickle ; this is founded upon the valuable evidence
of Mr. Crawfurd, who observes, " In the Burman
empire they consume very little tea, besides what
they grow themselves ; this last, although a genuine
tea botanically, is a peculiar variety. The Bur-
mese mix with it oil of sesamum and garlic, and
give it to their guests as a token of welcome.
There is a very large consumption of it, and it is a
considerable branch of trade." De Candolle, how-
ever, although he thinks the Assamese tea will
prove of inferior quality, does not consider the dis-
covery of less importance to Great Britain, and
acknowledges the necessity of paying every atten-
tion to its cultivation.

The tea of Assam may be obtained at a cheap
rate, when once the establishments for its growth
and preparation are placed upon a proper footing.
The land is of easy cultivation, and as the neces-
saries of life are purchased at a cheap rate, labour

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 83

will not be expensive. The cultivators will, of
course, at the outset, be obtained from China ; but
as they have no objection to give their instructions
to others, or to answer candidly any questions upon
the manufacture in China, there will be no difficulty
in instructing labourers capable of undertaking the
general and particular management of the plant-
ations. The facility of transmitting the tea to Cal-
cutta is another striking feature in the advantages
which Assam presents ; and although during the
water carriage down the Burhampootur, a consign-
ment of tea, owing to some faulty arrangement, was
damaged, the river affords means of transport, which
can be easily rendered available. One of the pe-
culiar features of the lower and central divisions
consists in tracts of sands stretched along the
Burhampootur, called " churs :" their breadth in
some places is from eight to ten miles ; they are,
throughout the whole of their extent, clothed with
dense grass-jungle. These grasses are mostly of a
gigantic size, some of them often measuring twenty
feet in height ; they consist of four or five species
of Saccharum and a species of Arundo. As the
genus Saccharum preponderates over the others,
and is, perhaps, during the efflorescence, the most
conspicuous of the order, the appearance of the
churs during the flowering of these plants must
be very striking. Mr. Griffith in a valuable paper
has given a useful list of the plants collected
from Upper Assam, and pointed out such tracts of
sand and belts of jungle as he had become ac-
quainted with in the neighbourhood of Sadeya, near

G 2

84 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

the confluence of the Dihong with the Burham-
pootur.

The Tea Committee arrived at the same conclusion
with Mr. Bruce that the indigenous tea of the
Singpho country was of the green tea species. The
circumstance that seemed to weigh principally with
Mr. Bruce appears to have been the quality of pre-
venting sleep attributed to it. The Committee, how-
ever, state, that they were predisposed to do so
from the knowledge, that in point of locality and of
soil there is a correspondence between those, in
which the Singpho plant is produced and the green
tea, but not with those in which the black tea-plant
is found in China ; at the same time that a different
species from that seen in the plains, and corre-
sponding in description with the black species, is
averred to grow in the neighbouring hills. The tea,
however, was dried in the fashion of black tea, and
arrived in Calcutta under the denomination of Paho
and Souchong. Of course many were the difficulties
to be contended with in the first experiment : the
plants from which the leaves were gathered were in
their wild and uncultivated state ; and the prepara-
tion was managed with great care, under the auspices
of Mr. Bruce, over a nicely regulated coal fire,
covered with ashes in baskets purposely made, having
the form of two inverted cones with their ends
truncated, as minutely described and figured by
Mr. Bruce in his memoir, a portion of which has
been republished in England. The Tea Committee
express their obligations to Dr. Wallich, their se-
cretary, for the skill and exceeding trouble he took

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 85

in the despatch of the consignment. This distin-
guished botanist having learnt that it was customary
in China to pay great attention^ lest any cargoes
consisting of articles of strong flavour might
be likely to impregnate the delicate and fugacious
aroma of the tea, and that they even planked off the
spaces allotted for the chests, recommended this
caution. The Assam tea was embarked on board the
Calcutta, Captain Bentley ; and as ox-hides had for
a long time formed part of the cargo of all home-
ward bound vessels, measures were taken for the
preservation of the tea, and for the introduction of
it to the East India Comj)any at home, in a perfect
and unimpaired condition.

Anxious to obtain for the tea which had been
imported into England a proper reception, and at
the same time to give as great a number of persons
as possible an opportunity of judging its real merits,
the East India Company transmitted samples to all
parts of the empire, and it was distributed amongst
scientific persons, and individuals distinguished
either by their station or by the estimation in
which they were held. The great majority of
those who tested its merits expressed their opinions
in writing; and the consequence has been a collec-
tion of a mass of favourable evidence, which has
been carefully preserved, and will most probably be
published amongst the parliamentary documents
which will be laid before the House of Commons.
At the January tea sales the East India Company
submitted for competition the last importation,
consisting of eight chests, each containing 320 lbs.

G 3

86 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

The novelty of the supply excited great attention
amongst the brokers and tea-dealers, who were na-
turally anxious to obtain some portion of the tea. A
competition of an unusual character was carried on,
which raised the price far beyond the most sanguine
expectation that had been entertained. Although the
tea was known to have been slightly deteriorated by
the inattention during its transit, and by the firing it
had gone through at Calcutta, it was generally ac-
knowledged to be equal to the ordinary Souchong
of the market, and it was expected that a price some-
what hij]jher would be given for it, as an article of
curiosity ; but such was the anxiety manifested to
get possession even of a chest, that from I6s. to 34a
was the selling price ; and it afterwards appeared that
the whole had become the property of Captain
Pidding, J the proprietor of the Howqua Mixture,
who was detertermined to be the means of spreading
wide this novel exportation from a British colony;
he has since distributed small samples, for which
the sum of 2s. 6d. was charged. The extraordinary
impetus given to this sale has prevented the East
India Company from ascertaining the marketable
value of the commodity ; but it has been of infinite
importance, by drawing public attention to the
subject.

The Dutch have been anxious to naturalise the
tea-plant at Java, and have formed plantations at
Bentenzong and at Garvet, where they have been
successful, and have proved that Java can produce
tea in sufficient quantity, if proper means be taken
for its cultivation. Their present plantation has

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 87

been reared from seeds obtained from Japan ; but
the Committee of Agriculture has sent for some seeds
from China, and is using every exertion to improve
the quality and quantity of the growth. Mr. Jacob-
son, the inspector of the cultivation, has the most
sanguine expectations that he will be enabled to
import tea, prepared precisely as is done in China,
and quite equal in all its qualities. This gentleman
has shown the greatest zeal and anxiety to carry
into effect this object : at the hazard of his life he
obtained from China a number of experienced
labourers, who have been employed at the various
farms. He has likewise imported some millions
of tea-plants, with machines and tools in use in
China. The teas sent to Holland have been spoken,
of as equal in flavour to any that have been im-
ported from Canton : their qualities have been va-
rious, some black and others green — samples of
Souchong and Pekoe amongst them. The different
plantations have yielded different qualities, some of
them much better than others. Some months since
there was a public sale in Amsterdam of 218 chests
of Java tea, which brought very high prices. The
Pekoe was sold for 500 cents per lb., and Souchong
from 265 to 300 cents. The newspaper called the
Handelsblad observes, — " It is true that the high
prices must be considered rather as a proof of the
interest taken in the new production of our colonies,
which every body wishes to possess, than as a cri-
terion of the value of the tea. We are, however,
happy to learn, that competent judges consider this
Java tea to be excellent; and affirm that it not only

G 4

88 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

is very nearly equal to that of China, but that many
of the sorts sold there were of a very fine kind,
such as are very rarely sent from China." The suc-
cess that has followed upon the plantations in Java
ought to be a stimulus to exertion in India ; for
Java does not offer such advantageous circum-
stances for cultivation as does Assam. The persons
who have superintended the introduction into the
former country have exerted themselves to import
annually the choicest seeds, and to procure culti-
vators and factors who had a thorough knowledge
of all the points connected with its growth and pre-
paration. With industry, zeal, and attention, there is
no doubt that the Assam plant will be found su-
perior to any that may be imported into any other
climate from seed ; for Nature has done that which
art in vain attempts to imitate, and man has only to
reap the benefits which she has planted for him. ^

" Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast ;
Let fall the curtain, wheel the sofa round ; ,
And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column, and the cups
That cheer, but not inebriate, wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful evening in."

Thus sang one of our most admired poets, who was
feelingly alive to the charms of social life ; but, alas I
for the domestic happiness of many of our family
circles, this meal has lost its character, and many of
those innovations which desjiotic fashion has intro-

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 89

duced, have changed one of the most agreeable of our
daily enjoyments. It is, indeed, a question amongst
the devotees to the tea-table, whether the bubbling
urn has been practically an improvement upon our
habits ; it has driven from us the old national kettle,
once the pride of the fire-side. The urn may fairly
be called the offspring of indolence ; it has deprived
us, too, of many of those felicitous opportunities of
which the gallant forefathers of the present race
availed themselves, to render them amiable in the
eyes of the fair sex, when presiding over the dis-
tribution

" Of the Soumblo, the Imperial tea,

Names not unknown, and sanative Bohea."

The consequence of this injudicious change is, that
one great enjoyment is lost to the tea-drinker — that
which consists in having the tea infused in water
actually hot, and securing an equal temperature
when a fresh supply is required. Such, too, is what
those who have preceded us would have called the
degeneracy of the period in which we live, that now
the tea-making is carried on in the housekeeper's
room, or in the kitchen, —

'* For monstrous novelty, and strange disguise,
We sacrifice our tea, till household joys
And comforts cease. "

What can be more delightful than those social
days described by Tate, the poet-laureate ? —

" When in discourse of Nature's mystic powers
And noblest themes we pass the well-spent hours,

90 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL

Whilst all around the Virtues — sacred band,
And listening Graces, pleased attendants stand.
Thus our tea conversations we employ,
Where, with delight, instructions we enjoy,
Quaffing, without the waste of time or wealth,
The sovereign drink of pleasure and of health."

The first allusions to the Chiai Catai of the Chi-
nese are to be found in the voyages and travels by Ba-
tista Ramusio, in some observations upon the books
of Marco Polo, in Maffei, and in Giovanni Botero,
who in his treatise or the causes of the magnificence
and greatness of cities, uses language to this effect :
— " The Chinese possess an herb from which they
press a delicate juice, which serves them for drink
instead of wine ; it also preserves their health,
and frees them from all those evils which the immo-
derate use of wine produces." After these authors
a whole list of writers may be named, who mentioned
the subject incidentally. Amongst these, the most
remarkable were Linschoten, Texeira, Jarric, Tri-
gault, Caspar Bauhin, Bontius, Olearius, Mandeslo,
Moriset, Varenius. A catalogue of these authors,
and of more modern authorities, has lately been col-
lected with great industry and personal attention to
the contents of their volumes by a young student
of great merit at Utrecht, Adrian Bergsma. Not
satisfied with a mere enumeration of authors, he
has marked in his little essay all such books as
he had consulted, and given the page of the
volume in the best edition, in which may be found
the subject to which he refers. To Kaempfer, who
resided two years in Japan, and who published

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 91

in 1726 two volumes, which have been translated
into most languages, is to be looked as the best
authority on the most important points, more parti-
cularly for the best engraving that had been given
of the shrub before it had been seen in Europe,
In the Acta Hafniensia is to be found the first deli-
neation of the tree; but it had been taken from a
dried specimen ; and however accurate, it furnishes
us with but a faint idea of the living plant. Bontius
in 1648 published a narrative of his voyage with
Admiral Matelief in the East Indies and China, in
the shape of a quarto, distinct from the two volumes
of which this account had formed a part ; and it
contained the representation of the plant. Plu-
kenet published a better engraving ; Breynius one
still more perfect : but the first authentic figure is
that of Tillaeus, drawn from the one introduced by
Linnaeus. Besides the writers who mentioned the
subject in travels and in botanical works, there were
many eminent men, whose attention was drawn to it
by the increasing taste of the people of Holland, of
Germany, and of England, for tea. Great curiosity
was excited by the learned to obtain specimens of
the various parts of the plant. A report existed
that there was one in England, the property of an
East India captain, who kept it for some years, and
refused to part with either cuttings or layers. Its
certain introduction, however, Avas reserved for the
greatest genius the world has yet produced ; one
who combined industry with sagacity — who was the
most attentive observer and recorder of every thing
in Nature, and who has done more for man than any

92 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

who have preceded or succeeded him — who has led
the way in knowledge, from whom, at this hour,
society is reaping the richest treasures.

It was in the year 1763 that Linnaeus had the
satisfaction of receiving from China a living tea-
plant. The delight with which he hailed the
stranger, is painted in that interesting diary which
he has left us, and which gives us such an insight
into the enthusiastic character of that illustrious
man. His words are, ^' At last, I^innaeus received
tea alive from China, which he had tried to succeed
in for so many years, and which nobody before had
been able to procure,, as neither the seeds nor the
root would bear the voyage. Linnaeus desired that
the moment before the ship set sail from China, the
seeds should be put in earth, and watered as a hot
bed. God blessed him even in this pointy that he
was the first who had the satisfaction to see tea
imported into Europe alive ; it was by means of
Ekeberg. He looked upon nothing to be of more
importance, than to shut the gate through which
all the silver went out of Europe." In the volumes,
called Amcenitates Academiccc, seven of which
were published by Linnaeus himself, is the disser-
tation by Tillaeus, entitled Potus ThecB. It was
at the period at which it was published the most
complete history of the tea -shrub ; he describes it,
gives the synonyms, the mode of preparing the
leaves, its sensible qualities, its virtues; but like-
wise states, that it is hurtful in some states of
body, such as palsy, colic, and ophthalmia: he
quotes the authority upon these points of Kalm,

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 93

who declared that, until the introduction of tea
into North America, carious teeth and debilitated
stomachs were unknown. He concludes this essay,,
which has been the foundation of most of those
that have since appeared, by a view of the circum-
stances which might promote its naturalisation in
other countries. The death of the plant that was
in the possession of Linnaeus was recorded ; but
the example of its introduction led to care and
attention on the part of others. Accustomed as we
now are to see it occasionally in our conservatories,
we can judge with difficulty of the rapture which
Linnaeus felt : nor can we enter into the pleasurable
feelings which the amiable Letsom expresses, after
alluding to the fact that many strong and good
plants, which were shipped at Canton, during their
voyage grew sickly, and one only survived the
passage to England, he says, a few young tea-
plants have been lately introduced into some of the
most curious botanic gardens about London, so that
it seems probable that this very distinguished
vegetable will become a denizen of England, and
such of her colonies as may be deemed most fa-
vourable to its propagation : his own drawing,
which, for the period it was done, is of great ele-
gance, was taken from a plant at Sion House, be-
longing to the Duke of Northumberland ; it was the
first that ever flowered in Europe.

We are now become familiar with that which was
hailed as a great improvement in our botanic know-
ledge ; and at the gardens of Messrs. Loddige will
be found, at the proper season, the plants in full

94? TEA; ITS MEDICINAL

flower, and growing to a height of six feet. In
France attempts have been made to naturalise and
to introduce it on a large scale ; and a gardener
published a prospectus, which promised to sub-
scribers an early supply of what he named Xeno-
phonia Thea Sinensis ; but as the art of drying it
was unknown, the scheme was quickly abandoned.

Nicolaus Tulpius was about the first medical
man who wrote professionally upon tea, but they
were not original observations ; they were the opi-
nions of the most eminent men he had collected
to give to the world. But in 1678 appeared the
first edition of a book which speedily ran through
three large impressions, and had a considerable in-
fluence upon the introduction of tea : it was entitled
Cornelio l^ontekoe^ Tractaat van het excellenste
Kruyd Thee. Although this work was, from the
extravagance of its commendations on tea, severely
handled by some of the critics, it was translated
into many languages, and quoted as the highest
authority. He pronounced tea to be the infallible
cause of health, and that if mankind could be
induced to drink a sufficient quantity of it, the
innumerable ills to which man is subject would
not only be diminished, but entirely unknown.
He thinks that 200 cups daily would not be too
much. He is said to have been rewarded for
his judgment by the liberality of the Dutch East
India Company. Heydentrik Overcamp, who wrote
the life of Bontekoe, states that his inducement
to write was to recommend himself to his fellow-
citizens, and to defend himself against his col-

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 95

leagues, who did not follow his theory or' his prac-
tice. Etraliller recommended tea as a fine stomachic
cephalic and antinephritic. Pechlin wrote a dia-
logue on tea, which he entitled Theophiliis Biba-
culiis ; and several poets indulged themselves in
its praise. Petit wrote a poem ; Peter Francius,
two Anacreontics ; Heinrich, a Doric Melydrion ;
and our poet-laureate, Tate, joined the melodious
bards. Whilst it met M'ith so much approbation,
there were likewise those who were not equally
satisfied with its merits. Boerhaave, Van Swieten,
and others, attempted to stem the tide that was
setting in its favour^ but they have proved them-
selves incapable of resisting the general impression ;
for no beverage that has ever yet been introduced
sits so agreeably on the stomach, so refreshes the
system, soothes nervous irritation after fatigue, or
forms a more grateful repast. It contributes to the
sobriety of a nation ; it imparts all the charms to
society which spring from the enjoyment of con-
versation, without that excitement which follows
upon a fermented drink. Raynal has observed,
that it has contributed more to the sobriety of the
Chinese than the severest laws, the most eloquent
harangues of Christian orators, or the best treatises
of morality. The people on the Continent are
reverting to the habit of tea-drinking, which they
had abandoned during the long war, when they
were shut out from the possibility of obtaining it,
and therefore sought a substitute in cofiee. In
Holland, in Germany, and in Russia, tea is much
prized ; whilst even in France, where for so many

96 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

years coffee was considered the only good beverage,
and was used either strong or mixed with milk,
according to the meal that was taken, our favourite
shrub is beginning to be as much in use as long
established custom has rendered it in England.

The introduction of tea-drinking into England has
been ascribed to Lord Arlington and Lord Orrery ;
and the year 1666, the annus mirahilis of Dry den,
has been assigned as the exact date : but in the
diary of Mr. Pepys, secretary to the Admiralty,
the following is registered, — " I sent for a cup of
tea, a Chinese drink^ of which I had never drank
before." Li the diary of Henry, Earl of Claren-
don, there is a memorandum, — "Pere Couplet sup-
ped with me, and after supper we had tea, which
he said was really as good as any he drank in
China." The first historical record, however, is
an act of Parliament, passed in the year 1660,
12 Carl. II. c. 23. which enacts, that a duty should
be laid of eight-pence per gallon on all tea made and
sold in coffee-houses ; which were visited twice daily
by officers, whose duty it was to ascertain what
quantity had been made. In 1668, the Court of
Directors, in the despatch to their factory at Bantam
in Java, ordered them "to send home by their
ships one hundred pounds' weight of the best tey
they could get;" and the following year appears
the first invoice of tea received by the East India
Company, amounting to two canisters of 143^ lbs.
The Directors had previously presented to her
Majesty, the Queen, who, as Princess Catherine of
Portugal, had been in the habit of taking this

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 97

beverage, twenty-two pounds of tea. It is to this
present on her birthday that Waller has alluded in
the beautiful lines that may be so often quoted, both
for their merit and for the historical facts recorded by
them. There is a curious bill preserved in the
British Museum in a volume of pamphlets, col-
lected by George III. and presented by George IV.
which is well worthy of being reprinted, as the first
account of the early use and the estimation in
which tea was held. It unfortunately has no date ;
but from the price it may be fairly inferred, that it
v/as printed about 1660. There is every reason to
believe that Garway has been gradually changed
into Garraway, and that he must have been the
predecessor of the present holder of that v/ell-
known coffee-house : —

" An exact Description of the Growth^ Quality,
and Virtues of the Leaf Tea^ by Thomas Garway, in
Exchange Alley, near the Royal Exchange, in Lon-
don, Tobacconist, and Seller and Retailer of Tea
and Coffee.

" Tea is generally brought from China, and
groweth there upon little shrubs and bushes, the
branches whereof are well garnished with white
flowers, that are yellow within, of the bigness and
fashion of sweet-brier, but in smell unlike, bearing
thin green leaves, about the bigness of Scordium,
myrtle, or Sumack ; and is judged to be a kind of
Sumack. This plant hath been reported to grow
wild only, but doth not ; for they plant it in their
gardens, about four foot distance, and it groweth
about four foot high ; and of the seeds they main-

H

98 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

tain and increase their %tock. Of all places in
China this plant groweth in greatest plenty in the
province of Xemsi, latitude 36°, bordering upon the
west of the province of Namking, near the city of
Lucheu, the Island de Ladrones, and Japan, and is
called ' Cha.' Of this famous leaf there are divers
sorts (though all one shape), some much better than
others, the upper leaves excelling the other in fine-
ness, a property almost in all plants; which leaves
they gather every day, and drying them in the shade
or in iron pans, over a gentle fire, till the humidity
be exhausted, then put close up in leaden pots, pre-
serve them for their drink tea, which is used at
meals, and upon all visits and entertainments in
23rivate families, and in the palaces of grandees :
and it is averred by a padre of Macao, native of
Japan, that the best tea ought to be gathered but
by virgins, who are destined for this work, and such
' quffi non dum menstrua patiuntur : gemmae quag
nascuntur in summitate arbuscula servantur Imj^era-
tori, ac prsecipuis ejus dynastis : quas autem infra
nascuntur ad latera, populo conceduntur.' The said
leaf is of such known virtues, that those very
nations, so famous for antiquity, knowledge, and
wisdom, do frequently sell it among themselves for
twice its weight in silver ; and the high estimation
of the drink made therewith hath occasioned an
inquiry into the nature thereof amongst the most
intelligent persons of all nations that have tra-
velled in those parts, who, after exact tryal and
experience by all wayes imaginable, have com-
mended it to the use of their several countries, and

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 99

for its virtues and operations, particularly as fol-
loweth ; viz. —

"^ The quality is moderately hot, proper for
winter and summer. The drink is declared to be
most wholesome, preserving in perfect health until
extreme old age.

" The particular virtues are these : —

^' It maketh the body active and lusty.

" It helpeth the head-ache, giddiness and heavi-
ness thereof.

" It removeth the obstructions of the spleen.

" It is very good against the stone and gravel,
cleaning the kidneys and ureters, being drank with
virgin's honey, instead of sugar.

" It taketh away the difficulty of breathing, open-
ing obstructions.

^'It is good against tipitude, distillations, and
cleareth the sight.

"It removeth lassitude, and cleanseth and pu-
rifieth acrid humours, and a hot liver.

" It is good against crudities, strengthening the
weakness of the ventricle, or stomach, causing good
appetite and digestion, and particularly for men of
corpulent body, and such as are great eaters of
flesh.

" It vanquisheth heavy dreams, easeth the frame^
and strengtheneth the memory.

*^ It overcometh superfluous sleep, and prevents
sleepiness in general, a draught of the infusion be-
ing taken ; so that, without trouble, whole nights
may be spent in study without hurt to the body, in

H 2

100 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

that it moderately healetli and bindeth the mouth of
the stomach.

"It prevents and cures agues, surfets, and fevers,
by infusing a fit quantity of the leaf, thereby pro-
voking a most gentle vomit and breathing of the
pores, and hath been given with wonderful success.

" It (being prepared and drank with milk and
water) strengtheneth the inward parts, and pre-
vents consumption ; and powerfully assuageth the
pains of the bowels, or griping of the guts, and
looseness.

" It is good for colds, dropsys, and scurvys, if
properly infused, purging the body by sweat and
urine, and expelleth infection.

•' It driveth away all pains of the collick pro-
ceeding from wind, and purgeth safely the gall.

"And that the virtues and excellencies of this leaf
and drink are many and great, is evident and ma-
nifest by the high esteem and use of it (especially
of late years) among the physicians and knowing
men of France, Italy, Holland, and other parts of
Christendom ; and in England it hath been sold in
the leaf for six pounds, and sometimes for ten
pounds the pound weight; and in respect of ^ its
former scarceness and dearness, it hath been only
used as a regalia in high treatments and entertain-
ments, and presents made thereof to princes and
grandees till the year 1657. The said Thomas
Garway did purchase a quantity thereof, and first
publicly sold tlie said tea in leaf and drink, made
according to the directions of the most knowing
merchants and travellers in those eastern countries ;

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 101

and upon knowledge and experience of the said
Garway's continued care and industry in obtaining
the best tea, and making drink thereof, very many
noblemen, physicians, and merchants, and gentle-
men of quality, have ever since sent to him for the
said leaf, and daily resort to his house in Exchange
Alley aforesaid, to drink the drink thereof,

" And that ignorance nor envy may have no ground
or power to report, or suggest that which is here
asserted, of the virtues and excellencies of this pre-
cious leaf and drink, hath more of design than
truth, for the justification of himself, and the satis-
faction of others, he hath here enumerated several
authors, who in their learned works have expressly
'Written and asserted the same and much more in
honour of this noble leaf and drink, viz. Bontius,
Riccius, Jarricus, Almeyda, Horstius, Alvarez Se-
meda, Martinivus in his China Atlas, and Alex-
ander de Rhodes in his Voyage and Missions, in a
large discourse of the ordering of this leaf, and the
many virtues of the drink ; printed at Paris, 1653,
part X. chap. 13.

"And to the end that all persons of eminency and
quality, gentlemen and others, who have occasion
for tea in leaf, may be supplyed, these are to
give notice, that the said Thomas hath tea to sell
from sixteen to fifty shillings in the pound.

" And whereas several persons using coffee, have
been accustomed to buy the powder thereof by the
pound, or in lesser or greater quantities, which if
kept two days loseth much of its first goodness ; and
forasmuch as the berries, after drying, may be kept,

H 3

102 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

if need require, some months ; therefore, all jDersons
living remote from London, and have occasion for
the said powder, are advised to buy the said
coffee-berries ready dryed, which being in a mortar
beaten, or in a mill ground to powder, as they use
it, will so often be brisk, fresh, and fragrant, and
in its full vigour and strength, as if new prepared,
to the great satisfaction of the drinkers thereof, as
hath been experienced by many in this city, which
community, of the best sort, the said Thomas
Garway hath alwayes ready dryed, to be sold at
reasonable rates.

" All such as will have coffee in powder, or the
berries undryed, or chocolata, may, by the said
Thomas Garway, be supplied to their content ; with
such further instructions and perfect directions how
to use tea, coffee, and chocolata, as is or may be
needful, and so as to be effecatious and operative
according to their several vertues."

There is no date to this handbill, but as Hanway
ascertained that the price was 60s. per lb. in 1660,
this bill must have been distributed about that
period.

The physician does not confine himself to the
knowledge of the power he possesses to restore
health and to alleviate pain ; he must likewise give
the information he has been enabled to glean relative
to that which can preserve it, and may enable man
to encounter all the varied circumstances and acci-
dents of life, from the period of his birth to the
moment of his decay. Yet how seldom has he
given to the public the conclusions to which he

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 103

may have arrived, after a long observation of the
effects which habits of life produce upon the states
of well-being and of longevity. The few works
upon diet are by no means sufficient guides to
the various classes of society. They are for the
most part composed of a few maxims and observ-
ations upon the nutritive qualities of each of the
aliments of prevailing use. There is, however, an
extensive field of research to be traversed by
those who may be disposed to direct their atten-
tion to the influence of different aliments upon the
human body ; the circumstances under which they
are best adapted for use, and the times at which one
or other is to be preferred. The quality of food,
the -hours at which it is to be taken, must mate-
rially diff'er amongst the great classes of rich and of
poor ; but the different pursuits and occupations of
life demand that there should be a similar distinction
in diet. The individual engaged in the highest
intellectual pursuits, who is frequently called upon,
either in the senate or at the bar, to exert his
powers of reasoning, and of conveying his thoughts
to others, must follow very dissimilar habits of life
from those of the man who, engaged in commercial
speculations, goes to his counting-house at a certain
hour, and there awaits intelligence which may either
gratify or annoy him. The nervous systems of
both are constantly in a high state of excitement, but
that excitement varies in its character, and has dif-
ferent channels by which it is relieved. In the one
instance there is an immediate vent to the feelings,
and the pleasurable or painful emotions arc quickly

H 4

104* TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

displayed ; whilst in the other case, both joy and
grief must be suppressed, and more especially the
causes of anxiety : the mind therefore is more
preyed upon, and the depressing passions gradually
lead to a despondency which preys upon the health.
The student in his chamber, the shopkeeper, the
mechanic, each has his peculiar habits, which de-
mand for him a knowledge of the effects of the
ordinary aliment to which he is to have recourse,
according to the circumstances of his life. Nor is
it less necessary for the idle man to be familiar with
the best mode of securing to himself, by a projier
attention to his diet, the inestimable blessings
which result from a well-ordered state of body. The
particular aliment which is now under discussion, is
not to be considered merely as affording some degree
of nutrition, but with a view to its effects upon the
different classes of society ; and likewise as to its
combination with other portions of the diet, on
which health so much depends.

The more simple the fluid which man takes as his
ordinary beverage, the greater will be its facility of
digestion, and of conversion into the component
j)arts of the human system. There are many states of
existence in which water, the common drink of all
vegetating bodies, would be preferable to any other;
but besides its insipidity, there are circumstances
which render it unpalatable, and there are also
very valid reasons for avoiding its constant use as
an aliment. There are districts and cities that can-
not furnish a water fit for daily drinking, as well
from the minerals that are held iiT solution in it, as

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 105

from the minute ova of plants and animals existing
in the most extraordinary quantities. In a drop of
water in some states may be discovered myriads of
forms of living beings, of a soft transparent gela-
tinous and almost homogeneous texture, which have
been called infusoria : these abound in some waters,
rendering them unfit for common drink, or, as in some
instances, may assist as medicinal agents. Thus some
chalybeate waters have their surface covered with a
crust of infusorial animalculse, having a coat of mail
investing their bodies ; in sulphureous springs
another race of these animalculse cover their bodies
with a coating of sulphur. It was most probably
owing to the necessity of boiling the water, which in
China is remarkable for its impurity, for the pur-
pose of destroying all vegetating and prolific
power, that the Chinese owe their present system
of tea-drinking. In all warm climates a most
uncomfortable sensation of thirst is constantly ex-
perienced, to relieve which, sipping some fluid not
absolutely tasteless is constantly demanded. The
salivary glands have it not in their power to yield
any of that fluid which in a temperate climate con-
stantly lubricates the mouth, and which is one of
the most decided indications of general health,
proving that the upper portion of the alimentary
canal is in its wonted state, that no inordinate state
of temperature marks the blood, and that the ner-
vous system is fully adequate to meet collision Mith
the world. The dry mouth and the white tongue
are the first signs of indigestion ; and almost all the
disorders of the alimentary canal exhibit^ as their

106 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

first symptom, some unwonted state of the salivary-
glands : whilst these are dry there can be no hunger ;
and when their secretion becomes morbidly altered,
or when, as life advances, it becomes impregnated
with salts, the whole system partakes of the influence.
Although the saliva under ordinary circumstances
is insipid, yet either in a hot climate or in age it
becomes capable, if it be not properly diluted, of
actual fermentation ; thus the Indians obtain a fer-
mented liquor by causing the teethless old women
of their tribe to masticate maize, and to spit out the
saliva into a receptacle for fermentation. M. Texier,
in a highly interesting narrative of his visit to Afi-
oum Kara Hissar, for the purpose of inspecting the
celebrated poppy-farms of Asia, from which the
opium was obtained, was astonished to find that the
labourers when they had scraped off the opium in the
form of a viscid jelly, placed it in earthen jars, and
spit into them ; he told them that he thought water
would be a proper substitute, but they assured him
that the goodness of the opium was materially in-
fluenced by their secretion ; in fact that a species of
fermentation goes forward, which materially assists
the development of the meconic acid, which Nature
has united with the alkaline base or morphia, the
narcotic principle.

In almost all warm climates, those who have pre-
viously lived in more temj^erate regions, constantly
sip or drink large draughts ; but if the first of
these habits be acquired, and a bland, slightly bitter
fluid such as tea be employed, health will be pro-
moted, and the comfort that it produces will become

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 107

apparent. If this be not the case, large draughts of
cold drink are necessary, which are determined to
the surface of the skin, the perspiration becomes
enormous, whilst the liver has its secretions ma-
terially altered, and the foundation for disease is
laid. In India, in most of our settlements, the
dangerous cup of brandy-and-water is too often
before the parched sufferer : at first he naturally
drinks it very weak, and limited to " a little ;" after
a time the draught becomes delicious; it is not only
a luxury, but necessary to him ; the spirit is in-
creased, and, for a time, the skin is the channel by
which the extra quantity of fluid is carried off: but
this is most mischievous, and habituates the system
to a stimulus which at last loses its eflPect, and the
very re-action vrhich results from it is a depressing
power. In Spain, more especially in Madrid, cold
water is almost necessary to existence. The saun-
terer upon the prado in the evening buys his glass
of cold water, his aqua frisca, or he is ill; he passes
a night of febrile excitement, and his meridiana
on the following day is harassed by frightful dreams
and cold perspirations. The smoker of the cigar,
who has had his salivary glands dried up by the
narcotic power of the tobacco, does not feel this
thirst, and vaunts the virtue of the weed ; and if
that state of the salivary glands were not an un-
wholesome one, reducing his appetite, and post-
poning the calls of hunger, he would have reason
for approval of the habit. It is, however, to tea
that the considerate man should direct his atten-
tion ; and he should in warm climates follow the

108 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

habit of the sagacious Chinese, who invariably pre-
pares his cup of tea, which he unceasingly sips, and
only in such quantities as gently to excite the sali-
vary glands, and keep up a feeling of equal mois-
ture and of warmth during the heat of the day :
his cup is small, and, unlike ours, it is never
without its attendant cover ; it is kept warm, and
the grateful aroma is preserved. On a warm day
in this country, where the mind is much occupied,
where the body has little action, sipping tea might
be found highly serviceable ; and instead of taking
ice, which momentarily relieves, but afterwards pro-
duces only a fresh desire for cold and for draught,
the 2^ractice of sipping is to be recommended.
When, however, the dryness of the mouth and fauces
is produced by excitement of the nervous system,
and has lasted for any length of time, sipping has
rather an irritating influence, from calling too fre-
quently the muscles of deglutition into action. The
public speaker, however much he may desire to
moisten his mouth, should, during his exertions,
avoid it ; it produces an irritation about the glot-
tis which often excites cough, and then a viscid
secretion of impeding mucus.

It has been believed, in consequence of some
observations made by Mr. Abernethy, that during
eating there should be no drinking ; and certainly
this rule, in some of the diseases of the digestive
organs, is important ; but it is not to be ap})lied to
a state of health. A due admixture of fluid and
solid matter is absolutely necessary for healthy
action ; not large and copious draughts of any

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 109

fluid whatever, but sufiicient to stimulate the
salivary glands into their proper secretion, and also
enough to propel the already digested mass from
the stomach. A gentle stimulus of three or four
glasses of wine during the great meal of the day,
is the common habit of life of those engaged in
occupations which do not demand any very extra-
ordinary exertions, either of body or of mind ; and
the general state of health, and the longevity of
those who do not trespass further upon the limits
of moderation, are evident proofs of the propriety
of such a system ; after the meal, when some little
time has elapsed, two or three glasses of Port pro-
duce no ill effects. Some individuals only take
their wine after the dinner: but this is by no means
so serviceable ; for the stomach becomes suddenly
stimulated, its action is hurried, and the slow and
gradual development of heat is exchanged for a
sudden excitement, which leaves a greater degree
of collapse behind. About two hours after this
a diluent may be advantageously taken ; then it is
that tea imparts a grateful glow of warmth, assists
the stomach to unload itself from the digested
food, which it gently propels ; soon after it has
been taken, the languor which is usually attendant
upon a full meal disappears, the propensity to
slumber so apt to prevail is dissijDated, the body
feels light, and the mind capable of either gather-
ing fresh information, or of indulging in the recre-
ation which society affords. CofFee-driiiking has,
since the great intercourse with France, much
increased ; and thus persons have acquired the

110 tea; its medicinal

habit of most injudiciously taking the strongest
coffee after their dinner as well as tea. A be-
verage fornned of coffee has great charms, and
likewise energetic power over the system, but it
must be taken with caution. In France, where
wines of the lighter qualities are preferred, a
strong infusion of the berry may be demanded for
the assistance of the stomach; but Avhere Port,
Sherry, or Madeira^ have been taken, coffee may
be said to be injurious. Excitement follows upon
its use ; watchftdness of a long duration, and a
feverish re-action, are amongst its immediate re-
sults : its distant ones act upon the extreme caj)il-
lary vessels of the body, which it seems to con-
stringe, affecting the skin, giving it a peculiar
hardness, and it has been affirmed to impart its
colour ; the sallowness of the skin of the Parisians
has been, by more than one medical author,
ascribed to it. Many authors have affirmed that
paralytic affections, and general debility, follow
its use. After dinner, in the form of very strong
infusion, the cafe 7ioir is often taken without
sugar, sugar-candy, cream, or milk, and is almost
an essence of the berry. The individuals to whom
it is useful, are those whose breathing is per-
formed with difficulty; they find the greatest relief
from drinking strong coffee, and many escape the
midnight paroxysm of asthma, by taking their cujd
about four hours before the usual hour of retiring
to rest.

Tea, as the morning beverage, when breakfast
forms a good substantial meal, upon which the

AND MORAL EFFECTS. Ill

powers for the day of meeting the various chances
and changes of life depend, provided it be not too
strong, is much to be recommended : but when
individuals eat little, coffee certainly supports them
in a more decided manner ; and, besides this, tea,
without a certain quantity of solid aliment, is much
more likely to influence the nervous system. Some
persons, if they drink tea in the morning and coifee
at night, suffer much- in animal spirits and in power
of enjoyment of the pleasures of society ; but if
they reverse the system, and take coffee in the
morning and tea at night, they reap benefit from
the change ; for the coffee, which to them in the
morning is nutrition, becomes a stimulus at night ;
and the tea, which acts as a diluent at night, gives
nothing for support during the day. Nothing can
be more injurious than the habit of taking spirits at
breakfast in tea ; and this is a very seductive custom,
wdiich is followed by persons who complain, that two
or three hours after breakfast they feel, without
their dram, an uncomfortable sinking at the stomach,
a general depression, sometimes palpitation of the
heart, and a sense of languor and incapability of
moving the limbs, which renders them quite inca-
pable of pursuing their daily avocations. A train
of miserable symptoms, to which the term "ner-
vousness" is given, and which is most difficult to be
described, attends this state, for which brandy or
rum in the cup of tea is often permitted, in the
dose of one or two tea-spoons ; this lays the foun-
dation for dram-drinking, with all its pernicious
consequences. An individual thus affected will do

112 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL

well, to renounce tea altogether, and to substitute
for it a beverage half coffee, half -warm milk, and
if possible to acquire the habit of taking a substan-
tial breakfast, which alone can dissipate this symp-
tom of uneasiness. As a simple and salutary dilu-
ent, no fluid is to be compared with the infusion of
tea; although milk, milk porridge, gruel, broth,
cocoa, coffee, infusion of sage, of balm^ of juni-
per berries, of aniseed, of fennel, of hay, of cori-
ander, of betony, of rosemarj^, of ginger, and
even sugar and water, have all had their advo-
cates, and have all been tried, they none of
them form so grateful and useful a diluent with the
ordinary'- meal, and they none of them are so uni-
formly agreeable : and though there may be pecu-
liar idiosyncrasies, in which it may not altogether
agree, yet it is innocent beyond all other drinks
with which we are acquainted.

It may be thought that, whether food be taken
warm or cold, the effect is precisely the same uj^on
the digestive and nutritive powers : such, however,
is not the case ; and from infancy to manhood great
attention is necessary to apportion the temperature
of that which is taken to the state of the system.
True it is, that for a great length of time a person
in high health and exercise does not require all that
nice care and attention to diet necessary to the
individual mingling in the world, who lives almost
in an artificial state, and is bound to follow the com-
mon habits of life, whether they be hurtful to him
individually, or be useful ; he is the more in-
terested that society generally should follow such

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 113

customs as are most likely to prove salutary. Early
as the days of Galen it had been remarked, how
necessary to the proper digestion of the aliment was
a certain degree of warmth ; and that, if the stomach
cannot produce it naturally, an artificial heat must
be obtained through the medium of the food. When
the anatomy of the human body was but imper-
fectly understood, and the functions of its various
organs little known, vague theories supplied the
place of scientific inquiry. The stomach was then
compared to a culinary vessel, in which that which
was taken was prepared for nutrition by means of
heat and fermentation. The heart, the liver, and
the spleen, were singularly enough supposed to be
organs destined, by the temperature of the blood
they contained, to act as the fire. Science, whilst
it has proved the fallacy of these views, has scarcely
substituted any satisfactory explanation of the facts.
We know that an increase of temperature is neces-
sary for the due digestion and preparation of the
nutrient matter- but we are ignorant of the laws
upon which this development of heat depends.
Within a certain time after a meal, it is evident
that the system exerts its energies ; and that, under
some circumstances, a febrile state is produced,
marked by flushing of the face, by headache, by
increased action of the pulse : this is followed by a
reaction, in which sluggishness and sleep are often
prevalent.

These are the consequences of the attempt of the
blood to assimilate that which it has imbibed to
its own temperature ; if this be performed with

I

114? TEA; ITS MEDICINAL

facility, ease and order ih the performance of the
functions are visible ; but if there be a laboured
action, disease and disorder ensue. A cold diet per-
severed in for any great length of time debilitates the
system, though it at first excites it. The stomach is
ordinarily the first organ that exhibits an unwonted
state ; a sense of weight, of acidity, of heartburn,
and of flatulence, are soon experienced ; and though
at first indigestion be the only effect, speedily some
of the other organs have their functions impeded ;
the liver, the nervous system, or the heart sufi*ers ;
and if their structure be not changed, such is
the impediment to their due action, that they la-
bour under affections which wear the appearance of
the most frightful disease, so that the most skilful
are deceived, and organic mischief is proclaimed to
exist : indeed, the effects are nearly the same ; for
the viscus most predisposed to debility sympathises
first; and thus the lungs, the liver, or any other
organ becomes irrevocably diseased. To remedy
the first stage of indigestion, the sufferer often has
recourse to vinous or spirituous drinks, which for a
moment relieve his sufferings, raising the tempera-
ture of the stomach ; but, as it is only a momentary
stimulus, no lasting benefit can be experienced,
whilst the reaction or debility consequent upon it
is even worse than the first symptoms. The exam-
ple of fish, whose blood is scarcely warmer than the
fluid in which they move, may be adduced as an
argument against the necessity of a warm diet.
The most voracious of them feed upon -beings of a
similar structure to themselves, cold-blooded ; but

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 115

these do not require the same process for their di-
gestion, for they are quickly converted into a slimy
mass ; the lowest grade of active decomposition,
which is putrefaction, is all that is required. The
warmth, therefore, conveyed to the stomach of man
by tea-drinking at his various meals becomes es-
sential to him ; and though at his dinner he takes
some fermented liquor, at other meals some warm
beverage is of essential service to him. Nor would
the crystal stream of the poet suffice for the healthy
powers of digestion in the artificial state of exist-
ence in which we are placed.

A warm infusion is therefore at particular meals
to be preferred to cold drink, although the latter
may be taken in high health. That we may run into
the contrary extreme, and take the liquor much too
hot, there can be no doubt ; and, although much
exaggeration has been indulged in, there is every
reason to believe that mischief has sprung from this
source. Boerhaave, the celebrated physician, was
much struck in his latter days with the appearance
of induration of the glands of the oesophagus or
passage from the mouth to the stomach. He believed
this disease to be unknown to the ancients, and
somewhat hastily concluded that it must be the
result of drinking tea too hot ; and various affections
of the stomach have been ascribed to a similar
cause. There were many of the leading physicians
of Hamburgh and of Amsterdam, who, when tea
was first introduced, took up strong prejudices
against it, and threatened the world with an aggres-
sion of a host of diseases : they more particularly

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116 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

spoke of leucorrhoea, which was not denied by some
of their brethren as occurring after much indul-
gence in this beverage; but they attributed it to the
prevailing fashion of drinking it hot. Ribe has
written a very ingenious treatise, entitled Usus Fer-
vidorum et Gelidorum. He ascribes carious teeth
to hot food, and various chronic states of debility
to the custom of drinking hot tea : he also animad-
verts upon the use of iced creams, jellies, and
particularly a custom at that time prevalent in
Sweden, afterwards abandoned, and now revived in
France, of eating congealed oysters.

There are very many states of the system, more
especially when there is a tendency to spasm, to
cramp, or to spasmodic affections, in which warm
fluids are absolutely necessary, and in which cold
will produce considerable mischief. Warm tea
during dinner is a very agreeable stimulant, when
there is great delicacy of the digestive organs ; but
the habit should not be persevered in for any length
of time, for its effects are never permanent, and not
unfrequently the stomach loses its natural tone for
some period afterwards, and emaciation has been
the result. After exercise, such as dancing, warm
tea is most grateful, and at the same time salutary ;
and when there has been a checked perspiration,
arising from the application of sudden cold, few
even of the more powerful sudorifics exert such an
influence upon the skin, causing an exhalation from
the surface of a large portion of that carbonic acid,
whose retention in the system is a constant source
of disease.

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 117

Tea is more particularly adapted for the ordinary
beverage of young women ; and the individual who,
until the day of her marriage, has never tasted
wine, or any fermented liquor, is the one who is
most likely to preserve her own health, and to fulfil
the great end of her existence, the handing down
to posterity a strong and well organised offspring,
capable of adding to the improvement and to the
welfare of the community. To preserve the form
and beauty of the sex is a duty that man owes to
himself, not for his sake alone, but for that of
future generations. The Spartan legislator, who
banished from their use all luxuries, who regulated
with strict discipline their diet, was fully aware of
the influence their habits of life must have upon
the youth who were to maintain the glory of his
commonwealth. His maxims, as long as they were
rigidly enforced, were successful ; and, when they
were allowed to pass into oblivion, a degenerate
race quickly succeeded to bold warriors.

When the frame of the female has nearly obtained
its full growth^ and some time j^revious to its arrival
at a state of perfection, a vast variety of changes
occur, which prepare it for the functions for which
it was so wonderfully and beautifully constructed,
and for which its complicated mechanism is so
admirably adapted — the reproduction of the species
— the preservation and nutrition of her offspring.
At this time preparation is making, by the boun-
teous hand of Providence, for the full development
of her system. Woman must pay the strictest
attention to a well regulated and abstemious diet,

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118 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

to proper exercise, and to the keeping up a due
action upon the surface of the skin. The efforts of
Nature are ahnost invariably successful, and the
greater number of females are prepared to fulfil the
destiny for which they are ordained ; yet it is at
this moment, however fair may be the external form,
that it is most fragile. Too soon is superabundant
health exchanged lor suffering and for sorrow, if
the quantity of nutrition which is intended, not only
for herself but for her offspring, be too great. If,
instead of eating moderately, of drinking the lightest
and most innocent fluids, she be permitted to in-
dulge the fancies of her palate, and in the indis-
criminate use of every article of food that is placed
before her, bitter will be the repentance that
must follow ; and inattention to the observations
which have been made by those who have preceded
her in the paths of life must lead to sorrow, and to
the most acute suffering and disappointment.

The quantity of fluid taken is not of such import-
ance as the quality of it; for nature has many
channels by which she can relieve herself from
such superfluity, but the grosser particles she can-
not so easily expel. Every thing that is taken
tends to increase the circulation, yet there is a
wonderful adaptation of means to carry it on,
without endangering the functions of the various
organs. Congestions do not occur ; but the tend-
ency is to fill every minute capillary vessel, which,
if the blood be in its proper state, quickly again
relieves itself. It is not only the arterial system
that is thus replete, but the venous system partakes

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 119

of the fulness ; so that nutrition is at its utmost
point : then is a woman in the full possession of
her bodily attractions and her mental charms. Of
the fulness of the blood-vessels, the eye exhibits a
striking and peculiar instance ; its white coat exhi-
bits a most beautiful hue ; there is an exquisite tint
of blue, which gives to the pearly membrane a
shade that approaches the azure of a serene sky:
it has occasionally something so supernatural in it,
that Byron's line,

" That eye was in itself a soul,"

appears not only poetic but descriptive. This
depends upon the minutest venous channels of the
coat of the eye being charged with the blue
coloured blood which circulates in the venous
system, and at no other period of life is this visible.
Not only must this plethora be duly watched,
but the circulation which is also too readily ac-
celerated. In an instant the heart quickens
with an unnatural throb ; the face is quickly
flushed; the mind like the body is in an electric
state ; they react upon each other ; every chord is
tremblingly alive to the touch, its tension is irre-
sistibly strong; every vibration is conveyed through
the whole system ; the pulse exhibits the mental
emotion, the cheeks are crimsoned with a native
glow, or the neck deeply suffused ; the eyes sparkle
with the illumination of genius, beam with the
fondest and truest filial affection, or radiate with
the light of love ; a gentle warmth is diffused
throughout the frame, and all that can betoken the

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120 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

highest health gives hope and expectation of joy
and life. Yet how quickly is this happy state ex-
changed for one of misery and disappointment,
when any of the dictates of prudence are forgotten :
exposure to cold may produce consumption, or
retardation of the actions of the economy; a full
and gross diet will give rise to plethora or inflam-
mation of the most important organs by which life
is sustained.

There are some females upon whom green tea
produces very nearly the same effect as digitalis or
foxglove ; and it has been medicinally employed in
the diseases for which that herb has so decidedly
obtained a high reputation. Desbois of Rochfort
has, by the use of it, cured numerous nervous dis-
eases which have arisen from accelerated circu-
lation. Dr. Percival had an idea that green tea
possessed nearly the same power as does digitalis,
of controlling and abating the motion of the heart.
It is a singular fact that there are several instances
recorded, in which green tea has restored regularity
to a pulse which has been habitually intermittent;
and it has often relieved the severe paroxysms
which occur where water exists in the chest. In
diseased lungs in young females it has been found
of essential service ; and even when consumption has
made advances, when suppurative fever, attended
with great restlessness and hurried circulation, has
produced its highest excitement, green tea has been
found to alleviate the worst symptoms. In these
instances its action has much resembled the fox-
glove; in the gentler sex those palpitations for

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 121

which this herb has been found valuable "will derive
relief from green tea. It forms an agreeable me-
dium for aromatic spirits of ammonia ; for harts-
horn, in many states of nervousness and of hysteria.
When the duration of what was supposed to be a
slight cold is longer than usual; when the pulse
varies in quickness at diflferent periods of the day ;
when there is a slight cough, which is aggravated
on going to bed ; when the heart beats violently on
going up or down stairs ; when there is a slight
difficulty of breathing in a horizontal position, and
we observe the individual to be of delicate habits,
and under twenty years of age, she must be watched
with great tenderness and anxiety ; her food must
be closely investigated, and attention to diet en-
forced. Green tea is oftentimes highly to be recom-
mended; but its administration must be watched.
After marriage a diet of a different description is
at various times necessary ; then all that is nourish-
ing is to be sought for, and every thing that can
lower the general system must be avoided. Al-
though wine has been up to this period of life
proscribed, it may be now rationally and cautiously
used ; and that which of all others affords the great-
est assistance to the frame is the wine of Cham-
pagne. Of this an occasional glass or two during
the dinner is one of the most important means of
imparting strength ; for the venous system requires
to be more than ordinarily carbonised. Neither
during lactation, nor in the early period of child-
bearing, is tea the most desirable beverage ; but at
any other time it is useful, as determining to the

122 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

surface of the skin, and acting as a gentle diluent,
and imparting an agreeable sensation of warmth
and comfort to the whole system, care always being
taken that there be no exposure to cold after the
evening meal, at which time there is a great sus-
ceptibility to morbid impression.

It is about the age of forty-two that the habits of
life demand attention from those who would secure a
healthy old age. It is the period, however, in which
the activity of the mind impels each individual on-
ward in his career, and renders him careless of his
frame, unless immediate suffering urgently require
his conformity to the regimen and the diet best
adapted to him. The stomach commences to have
an irresistible aptitude to form acid ; and this is
increased by the use of fermented liquors. In some
persons the j^aroxysms of gout occasionally show
themselves, though these are, from the more cautious
habits of life, less common than they formerly were ;
deposits in the urinary excretion are to be observed ;
or indigestion, with its train of miserable symptoms ;
or that still greater foe to human happiness, nerv-
ousness, exhibited in a thousand various forms,
will be present, unless there be a due attention to
dietetic precepts. The early breakfast and the late
dinner, without some light meal between them, is at
this period highly objectionable, more particularly
as the latter is too frequently a complete indulgence
in all the richest viands and the stronger wines,
whilst the stomach has been left empty for some
period. There is in general too great carelessness as
to the luncheon ; and the more active is the employ-

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 123

ment of the mind, the greater is the necessity for
some support. The lighter it is, certainly the better ;
for the loading the stomach with food in the midst
of the occupation of the faculties is not desirable :
but whilst the barrister sips his tea with toast or
rusk, the merchant may take his glass of sherry
with water, and the tradesman may enjoy his hearty
meal. Magnesia added to the cup of tea in the
middle of the day is the best antidote to the deve-
lopment of acid, and prepares the digestive organs
for the due performance of their functions.

There are many persons who are perfectly sensibly
of all the agreeable qualities of black tea, and B.T&
in the daily habit of drinking it, who cannot take
even a very small quantity of green tea. It seems
to produce upon them the most distressing effects.
On some individuals it acts almost as a narcotic
poison, depressing the system in a very singular
manner. Very shortly after they have drunk a cup
prepared in the usual form, they experience a train
of very distressing symptoms ; and though they sel-
dom last long, or leave any permanent influence,
still, whilst they are present, they are of a most
striking character ; they recur each time the tea is
taken ; nor will the stomach habituate itself to its
use. It is to be observed that, notwithstanding the
sensations that are thus produced, there are indivi-
duals who persevere in its use, and even find some
degree of pleasure in the first stage, or that of ex-
citement which usually precedes the depression.
The common signs attendant upon its disagreeing
with the system are a distressing nausea, a sense of

124? TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

constriction of the chest, and palpitation of the
heart. The face becomes pale, the skin is cold, the
pulse altered, both in frequency and in strength ;
in some cases it is weak and slow, in others
fluttering or intermitting : this state of depression
of the circulating system occasionally becomes more
alarming. The hands and feet are cold as marble,
and bedewed with a clammy perspiration : violent
pain in the head, giddiness, dimness of sight, inca-
pability of using muscular action, and a sensation
of suffocation, have been superadded to the other
symptoms. In the worst instances that are on re-
cord, the fluttering of the heart has been succeeded
by a momentary suspension of its action; and
long-continued swoonings have occurred. These
symptoms usually disappear without requiring any
medical assistance ; for although the sufferings are
evidently great, there is throughout them a constant
effort of Nature to recover the lost equilibrium. As
the stomach is the centre of sympathy, so is it the
first organ to which the vis medicatrix applies itself
in its moments of disordered action, and most strenu-
ously does it exert itself to relieve. Some of those
who are partial to green tea suffer much from its
efiects, and are often induced to take a stimulus
which affords them a momentary pleasure, but is the
source of much future misery. They complain,
about two hours after indulging themselves in their
green tea, of a sensation of sinking at the stomach,
a craving, an emptiness, and a fluttering in the
chest ; they feel this particularly after the morning
meal ; they are rendered incapable of following any
avocation ; they are miserable for the first hours of

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 125

the day ; are feverish, irritable, and in a highly nerv-
ous state. With a view of preventing these miser-
able sensations, they add at first a small quantity of
brandy, of rum, or of some spirituous liquor, and
at last a large quantity ; this habit is gradually ac-
quired ; it takes such full possession of the unfor-
tunate person that it is not to be shaken off; and at
last he gives way to the pernicious custom of dram-
drinking, and the glass of brandy an hour after tea
becomes indispensable to relieve the gnawing of the
stomach.

There have been many ingenious men and learned
physicians who have been struck with the bad
effects of tea upon particular persons ; and the
annals of the science of medicine present us with
many instances of such peculiar idiosyncrasies, upon
which the leaves of the shrub act as a poison of the
most deleterious character, though not proving
actually fatal. Dr. Percival has narrated an inter-
esting case of this kind in the first volume of The
Dublin Hospital Reports, — acute spasmodic pain in
the region of the stomach, a constant state of faint-
ing, with slight fits of suffocation occurring every
five or six minutes, were induced by green tea
drank in some quantity before retiring to rest:
these symptoms were relieved by two grains of
opium and a glass of cold water; sleep followed
this treatment ; but in about two hours it was again
interrupted by the same state of agitation, which
required the same means for its relief. In The
Glasgow Medical Journal is to be found a case
related by Dr. Lucas, of a female who was attacked
with excruciating pain at the stomach, with a sens-

126 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

ation of extreme distension. She exhibited some
of the most striking symptoms that are usually at-
tendant upon hysteria ; these were in a degree as
extraordinary as they were alarming. She writhed
as if suffering the most excruciating agony,
uttering the most dreadful shrieks, and perspiring
most i^rofusely from the forehead. This state was
relieved by the administration of large doses of
opium. The paroxysms returned on a succeeding
day, and demanded an enormous dose- of opium for
their alleviation — no less than six grains of solid
opium and four drachms of the tincture were required
before any sensible effect was produced. These
attacks were the consequence of taking in the
morning, before any other kind of meal, a large
quantity of strong green tea, without the addition
of either cream, milk, or sugar. Mr. Cole read
before the London Medical Society a very inter-
esting paper on the deleterious effects produced by
tea and coffee in excessive quantities ; he detailed
some very important cases, illustrative of his views.
He narrated instances in which severe spasms, dis-
turbance of the functions of the heart, pain and |
violent action of that organ, syncope, sudden attacks
of insensibility, headach, and convulsions, had oc-
curred. His essay excited considerable attention,
and elicited a long discussion amongst the members
of the society ; some of whom pointed out instances
that had come under their own notice, in which
green tea had been found productive of temporary
ill consequences. The symptoms that show them-
selves are apparently alarming, but they pass away
almost as instantaneously as they present them-

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 127

selves. Of this class is a ease narrated by Dr.
Harvey. A medical gentleman knocked at his door,
and requested permission to come into his house
and die. He appeared in a state of the greatest
alarm and agitation ; his pulse was scarcely percept-
ible and extremely irregular : he felt confident that
he v/as dying. Having stated that he had sat up the
>vhole of the preceding night, taking nothing but
green tea, a stimulant was given him, simply a glass
of cherry brandy : he was put to bed ; he slept well
for two hours, and awoke perfectly recovered.
' The ordinary effect of green tea taken late at
night is incubus or night-mare in its most formid-
able shape ; and many persons, who after a hearty
dinner have taken green tea, wake in the midst of
the night in a state of the most fearful agitation and
excitement : the head is oppressed, a sensation of
approaching death is felt, or sometimes the person
seems to be dragged from the lowest abyss of dark-
ness back to the world, from which during his
paroxysm he had felt gradually to sink. Although
none of these symptoms are permanent, and after
they have passed away they are forgotten, yet a fre-
quent recurrence of them must lay the foundation
of mischief, and ultimately tend to the shortening
the duration of life. Many individuals, who have
to undergo fatigue, drink quantities of green tea as
an antisoporific : certainly it has much power in this
way ; indeed, it has been successfully employed as
an auxiliary to resist the narcotic effects of opium,
when it has been too largely taken; but, as the action
is that of a sedative upon the heart and arteries, it is
injurious, and coffee is much to be preferred, which

128 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

produces arterial excitement, and thus influences
the brain and nervous system, even to the produc-
tion of exhilaration, which is rarely, if ever, the
consequence of the employment of tea.

In loss of muscular power dependent upon nerv-
ous influence, as exhibited either in local or
general palsy, or where the voluntary motions are
irregularly or prematurely performed, as in St.
Vitus*s dance, 'or ' in epilepsy, or wherever there
may exist the slightest predisposition to them, tea is
to be avoided ; for, although the opinion that has
been expressed by some authors, that this beverage
has caused these diseases to arise, is erroneous, yet,
where they are latent in the constitution, thej" may
be brought into action from any debilitating cause ;
and that which in a person in health produces little
or no effect enfeebles him who is already weak ;
and hence any watery drinks become sources of
depression. Where the system has been debilitated
by long and anxious watching, by excessive fatigue,
by loss of blood, or any thing that has had a tend-
ency to diminish the natural tone of the constitu-
tion, tea must be exchanged for some more substan-
tial beverage. Tissot has observed how injudicious
is its use, or rather its abuse, after long literary
labour ; and although the opinion of Dr. Johnson in
favour of tea is so often quoted, who firmly believed
that his power of resisting mental exhaustion was
attributable to it ; still it is by no means a judicious
habit to drink the large number of cups which have
been greedily swallowed during intellectual em-
ployment.

Much has been said of the increase of nervous

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 129

diseases in England, and this supposed increase has
been attributed to indulgence in this beverage.
Jonas Hanway published a series of letters against
the use of tea and gin, which contain some of
the bitterest anathemas against both of these be-
verages that ever were penned by man: he ascribes
almost every sorrow to which the human species is
subject, to these fertile sources. Misery, poverty,
suicide, and murder, he thinks, spring from them.
The nervousness which he describes is, however,
much less known than it was in his days ; and the
state which Dr. Cheyne has described under the
name of "the English malady," has been almost ban-
ished from amongst us. That fearful malady of mind
lasting for so many years, painted in such glowing
language, is scarcely met with by the physician of
the present day; and although he may meet with
hypochondriasis in many most striking forms, he
seldom observes it with all that melancholy train
of harassment it once exhibited.

Nervous disorders, though they still commit their
ravages, have not undergone that increase which
was threatened from the introduction of tea.
Another disease which was foretold would be the
scourge of the tea-drinkers has also diminished,
both in frequency and in violence — the scurvy.
A ridiculous experiment made by Dr. Hales, "on the
thickest end of a small sucking-pig's tail," which
was inserted into a cup of green tea, and thus
scalded, is adduced by Hanway to show how
hurtful the warm infusion of tea is to the stomach.
Still nothing that has yet been written can either
persuade the public that tea, properly taken, is

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130 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL

decidedly injurious, or that the increase of disease
is attributable to its general introduction.

That tea is the most agreeable and the most
salutary diluent that has yet been introduced into
Europe, would appear from the general improve-
ment that has followed upon its use ; and although
many plants have been used as substitutes, none
have so long maintained their character. The
common sage, Salvia officinalis^ the wild marjoram,
Origanum vulgare, the Arctic bramble, Rubus ArC'
ticus, the sloe-tree, Prunus spinosa, the goat-weed,
Capraria bijloray Mexican goose-foot, Chenopodium
atnbrosioides, common speedwell, Veronica officinalis,
wild germander, Veronica Chamcedrys, have been
tried, but the most sanguine commenders of these
herbs have soon become tired, and have abandoned
their use. Chocolate has been found most service-
able to the low-spirited, to those who are emaciated,
to those who suffer from haemorrhoids ; and there
are certain states in which coffee may be preferred,
but that these and herbs, in the state of infusion
and decoction^ ought to be the sole drink of man,
neither appears from the history of the past, nor a
consideration of the adaptation of man for the
various climates to which he is exposed, the labour
he has to undergo, nor to the immense variety
of food which necessity and habits of life have
introduced. The vicissitudes of human existence,
sometimes in a state of the utmost simplicity,
at others of unbounded luxury, demand that
aliment suitable to the general wants, as well as
to each individual member, should be obtained;
that fermented liquors, if injudiciously taken, pro-

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 181

duce diseased stomachs and livers, consumption,
dropsy, madness, is universally acknowledged ; and
the prudent man, who fears that he may be betrayed
into a single excess that may overpower his reason,
is perfectly right in shunning the means of mis-
chief. But good wine is a good cordial, a fine sto-
machic, and taken at its proper season invigorates
mind and body, and gives life an additional charm.
There can be found no substitutes for the fer-
mented liquors, that can enable man to sustain the
mental and bodily labour which the artificial habits
of society so constantly demand. Temperance and
moderation are virtues essential to our happiness,
but a total abstinence from the enjoyments which
the bounteous hand of Nature has provided, is as
unwise as it is ungrateful. If, on the one hand,
disease and sorrow attend the abuse of alcoholic
liquors, innocent gaiety, additional strength and
power of mind, and an increased capability of
encountering the ever-varying agitation of life, are
amongst the many good results which spring from
a well regulated diet, in which the alcoholic prepar-
rations bear their just proportion and adaj)tation.

Of the effect of the aroma issuing from tea, the
following observations are to be found in Dr.
Lettsom's work : —

" An eminent tea-broker, (Mr. Marsh, he means,)
after having examined in one day upwards of one
hundred chests of tea, only by smelling at them
forcibly, in order to distinguish their respective
qualities, was the next day seized with giddiness,
headach, universal spasms, and loss of speech and
memory. By proper assistance the symptoms

K 2

132 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

abated, but he did not recover; for though his
speech returned, and his memory in some degree,
yet he continued, with unequal steps, gradually
losing strength, till a paralysis ensued, then a
more general one, and at length he died. Whether
this was owing to the effluvia of the tea may, per-
haps, be doubted. Future accidents may possibly
confirm the suspicion to be just or otherwise."

Dr. Lettsom then relates, — " An assistant to a tea-
broker had frequently, for some weeks, complained
of pain and giddiness of his head, after examining
and mixing different kinds of tea. The giddiness
was sometimes so considerable, as to render it
necessary for a person to attend him, in order to
prevent any injury he might suffer from falling, or
other accident. He was bled in the arm freely,
but without permanent relief; his complaint re-
turned as soon as he was exposed to his usual
employment. At length he was advised to be
electrified, and the shocks were directed through
his head. The next day his pain was diminished,
but the day after closed the tragical scene. I saw
him a few hours before he died ; he was insensible ;
the use of his limbs almost lost, and he sunk very
suddenly into a fatal apoplexy. Whether the effluvia
of the tea, or electricity, was the cause of this event,
is doubtful. In either view, the case is worthy of
attention."

Dr. Thornton, however, says, in his Herbal,
" In addition to the above, let me add the testi-
monies of Mr. Venn and Mr. Wright, who are
smellers and tasters to the East India Company of
the teas which have been imported, and place

AND MORAL EFFECTS* 133

marks on each chest of tea, as good, very good,
superlatively good, best, very best, extraordinary,
fine, incomparable, the bloom, and so on, in degrees
of comparison, which we grammarians are unac-
quainted with, but which direct the purchase ; and
these gentlemen have been employed upwards of
forty years, sometimes in a morning tasting seventy
cups, of all sorts, and after that smelling often from
seven to eight hundred chests of tea; and these
gentlemen never found any thing in teas at all pre-
judicial to their health. The former asserts, that
Dr. Lettsom's account of Mr. Marsh losing his life
by smelling of teas is founded upon mistake ; and
Dr. L. promised him to alter the mis-statement,"

At the first formation of Temperance Societies
the total abandonment of spirituous liquors was
not contemplated, their occasional use being per-
mitted to their members ; their abuse only being
strictly forbidden. It was in the United States, in
the city of Boston, that, for the first time, a union
was entered into, and those who formed it were as-
sociated together by the common bond of sobriety ;
but it was ten years later that, in the same city,
many of the most influential inhabitants entered
into a determination, which they most strictly ad-
hered to themselves, of avoiding all fermented
liquors, and of discountenancing their use in others.
In 1828, two years after the first enrolment of the
names of those who formed a society of this nature^
there were no less than 220 similar institutions,
comprising nearly 30,000 persons, all animated
with one spirit, not that " of Bacchus and Mars,
two of the most mischievous maniacs that ever

K 3

IS^ TEA; ITS MEDICINAL

made their escape from Bedlam, but of Temper-
ance and Sobriety." The effect upon the mortality
of persons under the age of forty, was visible in
the following year ; and wherever the system has
been pursued, a decrease in the number of deaths
has rapidly followed. In the year 1834-, a central
body was formed in Philadelphia, with associations
in every town in the United States ; from the great
body of the people, the determination quickly spread
throughout the army and the navy. In 1832, 500
vessels quitted the American ports without a supply
of spirits on board ; and such was the feeling of
increased safety to the vessels, that the underwriters
lowered their rate of assurance, and that they were
borne out in their estimate of diminished danger,
was fully proved. It has been satisfactorily de-
monstrated that vessels which were strictly upon
the Temperance System, have made more prosperous
and more rapid voyages than others. One fact is of
the most extraordinary character, that 168 whaling
vessels out of 186 employed, took not a drop of
spirit on board ; and although they had to encounter
the cold, the privations, the miseries of a north
sea, they returned healthier, happier, and more
successful, than did those who repudiated the opi-
nions and the customs of this vast and prevailing
sect.

It is stated that in the year 1835, 4000 distil-
leries were abandoned in America, and that 8000
persons, who had previously obtained their livelihood
by the sale of spirits, were compelled to discontinue
their trade. The example of the people of the Uni-
ted States was soon followed by those of other

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 135

countries; and, to the honour of Ireland, the town
of New Ross was the first place in Europe, in
which a Temperance Society was established. Since
that period, almost every large village in England
has founded a similar institution. Tea has in most
instances been substituted for fermented or spiritu-
ous liquors, and the consequence has been a general
improvement in the health and in the morals of a
vast number of persons. The tone, the strength,
and the vigour of the human body are increased by
it; there is a greater capability of enduring fatigue;
the mind is rendered more susceptible of the inno-
cent pleasures of life, and of acquiring information.
Whole classes of the community have been rendered
sober, careful, and provident. The waste of time
that followed upon intemperance, kept individuals
poor, who are now thriving in the world, and ex-
hibiting the results of honest industry. Men have
become healthier, happier, and better for the ex-
change they have made. They have given up a
debasing habit for an innocent one. Individuals
who were outcast, miserable, abandoned, have
become independent, and a blessing to society.
Their wives and children hail them on their return
home from their daily labour with their prayers
and fondest affections, instead of shunning their
presence, fearful of some barbarity, or some out-
rage against their better feelings. Cheerfulness
and animation follow upon their slumbers, instead
of the wretchedness and remorse which the waken-
ing drunkard ever experiences.

The beauty, the harmony, and the vigour of the
human frame, are soon altered by intemperance ;

K 4?

*

136 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL

her fearful characters are legibly impressed upon
the countenance, the figure, voice, and gait. The
good complexion, the manly bearing, the air of
sincerity, visible in him who is guided by well-dis-
ciplined habits, strongly contrast with the down-
cast look of the sensualist, with his listlessness, his
sluggishness, his swollen and harsh features, his
leprous skin : the bloated face, the purple nose, the
blotched cheek, the blood-shot eye, the host of
papulous and pustular eruptions, the loss of hair,
the increased secretions from the mucous mem-
branes of the nose, the faded and the haggard look,
which bespeak the drunkard, may even harass
him who does not actually intoxicate himself,
but has dail}'- potations beyond the limits of good
sense. These are traits which are read by every
eye ; but there are more minute characters, which
reveal to the attentive observer truths which the
art of dissimulation would in vain attempt to con-
ceal ; there are miseries which are consequent upon
drunkenness, which the physician has seen and
known, which the drunkard doubts, or to which he
turns a deaf ear. A physiognomist has said, —
" Every face is a seal with truth engraved upon
it;" it is indeed too often " a book where men may
read strange matter." How often does it betray, not
only the mischievous propensity, but the beverage
to which tlie drunkard is attached ! The gin-
drinker exhibits a sad picture : his haggard coun-
tenance is of a leaden hue, his forehead is gathered
into premature and unsightly wrinkles, his eyes are
dead, and lack lustre — they are anxious, restless,
—they cannot meet the anxious look of their dearest

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 137

friend ; the cheek is sallow ; emaciation, misery,
are stampt visibly in every line. Brandy gives a
fiery redness, a fierce turgescence to the cheek ;
every vessel of the face is loaded to repletion ; the
eyes are blood-shot, they glare ferociously ; every
look betokens that in a moment a paroxysm of
violence, rage, or madness, may burst forth ; whilst
he who besots himself with beer exhibits all the
marks of idiocy : his face bears evident proofs of
the ravages this beverage produces ; it has a
yellow hue ; the cheeks are bloated ; the nose and
the lips are purple ; the saliva streams from him[;
the feebleness with which he lifts his arm to his
mouth, to brush away with the sleeve of his coat
the accumulated froth, is a true indication of the
sluggishness the liquor induces, which differs essen-
tially from the increased energy and brutal violence
of the brandy, or the paralytic motion of the gin-
drinker. The lover of vinous potations has his
red nose, his rosy eruptions on the face, his heavy
eyes, his parched lips, and purple cheek, as evi-
dence of his Bacchanalian joys. The gin and the
wine drinker becomes " maudlin " in his cups ; him
apoplexy threatens : and the individual who flies
to brandy for relief, and becomes furious and vio-
lent, may also thus terminate life suddenly ; whilst
he who becomes depressed, anxious, and melan-
choly, after the first stage of exhilaration is passed,
will most probably be the victim of palsy.

Dropsy, scirrhous liver, gall-stones, epilepsy, a
tendency to mortification on the slightest wound,
varicose veins, gout, indurations of the important
organs which assist digestion, — all threaten misery

138 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

to the intemperate, and should awaken him to the
sad folly of being led, for a transient pleasure, to
lasting agony and grief.

One of the most frightful maladies consequent
upon the abuse of vinous or spirituous drinks, is
delirium tremens, which bears with it a melancholy
train of symptoms which are closely allied to some
of the most aggravated forms of disease which the
sad catalogue of human afflictions presents us with.
Sometime previous to the development of this dis-
order there are observed weakness, languor, ema-
ciation ; there is no appetite for breakfast or for
dinner ; there is a peculiar slowness of the pulse,
coldness of the hands and feet, a cold moisture
over the whole surface of the body, cramp in the
muscles of the extremities, giddiness, nausea, vomit-
ing. To these signs succeed a nervous tremor of
the hands, and likewise of the tongue ; the spirits
become dejected, a melancholy feeling pervades the
mind ; the sleep is short and interrupted : this may
constitute the first stage ; after which a second
comes on, attended with the highest degree of
nervous irritation, ending in mental alienation.
Objects of the most frightful nature are present
to the imagination ; the eye acquires a striking
wildness ; the person cannot lie down ; he fan-
cies he sees faces of extreme hideousness before
him, beings enter into a conspiracy against him :
sleep is altogether banished. This disorder some-
times bursts forth after a debauch with tremendous
violence, and in an unmanageable form ; it is some-
times characterised by the exhibition of a furious
delirium ; the eyes become ferrety, the perspiration

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 139

enormous, and the want of sleep is almost painful
to the attendant. Oftentimes the paroxysm is of a
melancholy kind : the appearance of the sufferer is
very striking from his total helplessness ; his in-
coherence of ideas, and his refusal to drink, which
produces almost as striking an effect as hydro-
phobia, excite the utmost alarm. Death is some-
times sudden. Dr. Pearson witnessed a distressing
incident in a patient who, for a considerable time
before his death, imagined he saw the devil at the
ceiling above his bed ; and as the disease increased,
he fancied the evil spirit approached him with a
knife to cut his throat, and actually expired, making
violent efforts to avoid the fatal instrument.

That the best of men may soon be degraded into
the most abject of creatures by that which, if mo-
derately taken, dispels sorrow, invigorates the mind,
and is a grateful cordial in pain and in disorder,
all must allow ; and that, sooner or later, anguish
and torment of the most frightful kind will afflict
the body of the sensualist who indulges in habitual
intoxication. During wine or spirit drinking, the
first hint that the constitution gives, that it can
receive no more with impunity, should immediately
be taken. The kidneys, faithful to the brain and
to the heart, secrete from the blood that which
would be noxious to them. As soon as they com-
mence their increased action, the prudent man
discontinues his enjoyment, or he mixes his wine
with a diluent : he has recourse to a cup of warm
and grateful tea. Some individuals have their
kidneys more instantaneously called into action
than others ; and if it is from actual quantity of

140 tea; its medicinal

fluid, that relief by excretion is demanded, this in-
dication that more wine is dangerous, should never
be forgotten, and many miseries are obviated by
attention to one of the most important channels
which nature has destined to carry away that which
is not useful to man's constitution.

Although the abuse of wine and of fermented
liquors is so dangerous to man, yet a moderate
indulgence in these gifts of Providence is a source
of happiness, of joy, and of health, to him. The
rigid laws that have been so loudly proclaimed
and widely disseminated, are not adapted to every
stage of society, nor to every member of the great
commonwealth. If, on the one hand, disease and
affliction follow upon intemperance, additional
strength and power of mind, and an increased capa-
bility of encountering the ever-varying agitations
of life, are among the many good results which
spring from a well-regulated diet, in which beer,
wine, and tea, bear their just proportions ; nor are
the alcoholic fluids to be altogether banished, though
they are most objectionable if often taken, and more
especially in their undiluted state.

In a climate of great vicissitude, where the win-
ters are uncertain, moist, and foggy, in constitutions
where mind and body are equally liable to depres-
sion, something beyond a mere diluent, or even a
nutritive, is required ; and it is better that the system
should acquire a regular habit of daily taking a
sufficient quantity for its support, than that there
should be occasional fits of excitement by the sti-
mulus of drink, and then a consequent depression.
Nothing was more injurious to health, and was more

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 141

productive of gout and of nervous disorders, than
the system pursued by our immediate progenitors,
in their early life. The wine was not daily placed
upon the table, and three or four glasses taken at
the dinner meal ; but once or twice in the week,
either at home or at the house of a friend, there
was a dinner party, at which each person was accus-
tomed, nay, sometimes obliged, to drink to intoxi-
cation. The consequence was, that in a certain
rank of life, every person was expected to be laid
up by a fit of the gout, a disease which is much less
known than it formerly was ; and those only who
have it handed down as an hereditary disease suffer
in the present day ; but the most abstemious person
who has had it transmitted to him is more likely to
have it developed if he do not drink with great re-
gularity a small quantity of wine, for upon some
accidental indulgence he will feel the ill conse-
quences of his father's habits. A person who has
abstained for months from wine has, from two glasses
of champagne, suffered a paroxysm of gout, whilst
he who has habituated himself to a regular glass of
good wine escapes his enemy. When there is great
activity of mind during the winter months there is
a necessity for a stimulus, which is hurtful during
the summer. The port, the sherry, the ale, so
proper at Christmas, and the cup of tea quickly
following it, must be exchanged, in summer, for the
claret or hock^ or for tea alone. The damp and
uncertain states of the atmosphere of this country,
independent of all other considerations, point out
the necessity of obtaining an artificial bodily heat.
The glow and animation that follow upon a proper

142 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL

stimulus are serviceable to man, more particularly
when they are excited late in the day, when the
nervous energy is somewhat exhausted ; for the same
quantity of fluid, if taken at the time of the day
when it is not required, will impair the health, and
prevent the mind from exertion. It is, therefore,
to be remembered, that it is not indiscriminate wine
or beer drinking that is to be recommended — it is as
a regular systematic beverage at due intervals, and
at proper times, that it is to be taken. It is not as
a vicious indulgence, it is not as a weak propensity
that it is to be sought ; but wine is to be considered
as an agreeable stomachic, a necessary aliment, and
a gentle stimulant to mental energy. The varieties
of beer renovate the system, enable it to bear
fatigue, are serviceable during moist and cold wea-
ther, where impure air exists, where occupations
are either laborious or unhealthy, and it is as an
article of diet, and not of luxury, that beer is to be
estimated. During excessive fatigue, it should be
permitted as an unusual stimulant; and although
the whale-fisher has denounced it even in his
greatest exposures to the inclemencies and perils to
which he is subject, it is to be remembered that,
amongst the records of facts, we have the narrative
of the sad state of the crew of the unfortunate men
who, with Captain Bligh, had the most frightful
privations and the most overpowering hardships
to encounter, and their preservation was owing to
the administration daily of a tea-spoonful of rum.
As life advances, when the meridian is past, the
vinous and fermented beverages prove a valuable
cordial; they keep up the warmth of the circulation ;

AND MORAL EFFECTS. 143

they assist digestion, produce cheerfulness, enable
the aged to partake of the pleasures of the young,
recall the pleasures of the past, and give to the ima-
gination pictures of future happiness.

A meal in the morning of tea and of simple food
will enable man, with faculties unclouded, to pursue
the varied walks of life, to receive or to give in-
struction, to obtain that which he requires to make
his home peaceful and prosperous : something light
and nutritious is required to support his nervous
energy during the hours of his occupation ; and at
the close of the day, when his toils are over, he
should take a repast of agreeable food, duly min-
gled with wine and diluted by tea, to appease his
appetite, to nourish his body, and to induce sleep.
The precepts of life are temperance, sobriety, and
chastity. These are best followed with regularity :
tranquillity, a long existence, serenity of temper,
and equanimity, are secured by them ; and al-
though the tea-drinker cannot know the transient
excitement of intemperance, he is likewise ignorant
of its fearful collapse ; but let us use all things,
as they were given to us, for moderate enjoyment,
in this state of existence in which pleasure is to be
derived from all by which we have most graciously
been surrounded by our great Creator.

It is not at all unlikely that, when English industry
and knowledge are properly applied to the culti-
vation and preparation of tea, there will be a uni-
formity in different teas ; and, though they may not
be superior to China, that there will be less mixture
of bad and good teas together. The consumption
must necessarily increase ; and, as Mr. Walker has

144- TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL AND MORAL EFFECTS.

observed, it is most likely that in the territories of
the East India Company it would be prodigious.
It is now used as a luxury and a medicine in cases
of sickness there. The Hindoos live chiefly upon rice
and flour ; their only drink is water ; if tea could
be obtained by them at a moderate price, it would
form a most refreshing addition to their domestic
economy, as well as a salutary beverage in those
fatal febrile affections to which the oppressive heat
of the climate predisposes them. All that requires
to be done is to prepare the herb in such a manner
as to convince the people of England that it is not
merely simple cultivation that has been attended
to. Under the guidance of Mr. Bruce, every thing
that good sense could suggest, and industry and
attention supply, has been most rigidly enforced.
The copy of papers received from India, relating
to the measures adopted for introducing the cul-
tivation of the tea-plant within the British posses-
sions in India, which has been laid before the House
of Commons, contains a mass of intelligence, which
cannot fail to make an impression upon the public
at home, that science and skill have alike been
directed towards carrying into effect an establish-
ment, which, from a combination of causes and
occurrences, is at the present moment more likely
to be beneficial to the empire than the most brilliant
discovery, or the most splendid achievement.

THE END.

LoffDON:
Printed by A. Spottiswoode,
New-Street-Square.

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